Days After
by Colorslander
Summary: Tifa survives the end of the world, but it's what comes after that's the hardest. [AU]
1. Prologue

**Days After: Prologue**

* * *

_Day 0_

**1:15:45 PM**

White sugar, brown sugar, butter- beat until it's a satisfying massive blob of fluff.

**1:17:29 PM**

Flour, vanilla extract, chocolate chips, eggs, baking powder. A pinch of salt.

**1:20: 23 PM**

Tifa looks at her concoction with a sense of pride. Because for all the cooking she does, she never really gets to bake. And it's a shame because there's something about baking that puts a makes her feel all warm inside. Like a snug blanket on a cold day.

**1:24:55 PM**

Oh crap, preheat the oven. Right. How do you forget that?

**1:25:55 PM**

Still mixing- maybe with a little too much aggression.

She's been messing up a lot of small things lately, Tifa decided. Nothing that was ever worth mentioning, just enough of the details for her to begin to notice. And sometimes it gets a stray comment of concern from a friend or a patron of her bar.

Every misplaced key, misheard order, and drink that missed their destination was beginning to add up; to what, probably nothing more than added frustration. But she really didn't need another straw on her back.

Hence the cookies. She figures she deserves an indulgence once in a while.

**1: 27: 01 PM**

She stops mixing, and begins to tap drops of dough onto a the shear cookie sheet.

It's stress. Tifa frowns, no that wasn't quite right. Stress wasn't quite the right word. Confusion? Maybe better. She's stuck in a bit of a limbo lately, relationship wise. And that's the worst kind of limbo because it seems to bypass your carefully laid defenses and breaks you down regardless.

Tifa knows she is a young, attractive woman, godmother to two beautiful children, owner of a quaint albeit small townhouse, with a successful small business, and there's not many in this city who can boast that. But somehow she still feels small and a little bit stupid when it comes to these things.

Tap tap on the cookie sheet.

Cloud is worse than her when it comes to these things. She knows it, and she tries very, _very_ hard not to expect anything. There's a right time and place for everything and it is not now. She's can wait because if nothing else she's extremely patient.

But still, every time he goes to Aerith to confide in her (and not Tifa), or drops out of a promise to meet, or decides to communicate in grunts instead of words, there's an uncomfortable pit in her stomach that grows. He doesn't mean anything by it and Tifa's never been one to push.

She decided to just wait the troubles out but then came her forgetfulness and the long awkward moments where she just spaces out. Was it Jealousy- kind of; nervousness- maybe; self doubt- oh definitely. That pit was starting to spread from her stomach to her head, from her heart to her daily life. But she really needs to keep it tog-

**1:35:45 PM**

The high pitch reminder from the oven interrupts Tifa's drabble of thoughts. Right, preheated and now to put in the cookies. She opens the oven door, greets the warmth blast of air, and places the cookie pan in it.

She tends to think herself in a corner; she knows it better than anyone. Better to focus on chocolate chips.

But maybe she should call him-

"_Warm, preferably halfbaked cookies_," she shoves her thoughts in a different direction.

She strides across the room and picks up the phone hanging from a wall. There's no harm in calling him. Maybe tell him to come over for dinner.

"_Freshly made cookies. She could even save some for Marlene and Denzel when they visit-"_

No, no, she hangs up the phone before she even begins to dial. Dear gods her mind is a mess. Whatever she would be saying would be come out jumbled anyways.

She picks the phone up again, she's overthinking this. It's not like it's strange for her to call Cloud, they knew each since forever. Back in their younger years where days were as long as weeks, she wore pretty dresses every day, and he still blushed at every little thing.

Nope, still a bad idea. She hangs up again.

"_Melt in your mouth chocolate chip."_

**1:40:13 PM**

"Hello?"

"It's me, Tifa."

"Oh Tifa!" and Tifa can't help and smile at the affection coming from the woman's voice on the other side of the receiver, "Just the woman I was looking."

"Should I be scared? Because I'm scared," Tifa teased. She didn't really understand what compelled her to call Aerith considering she was (a small) piece of the confusion that haunted her, but she was glad she did. Aerith had this trait, a gift, to make everything feel like it was going to be alright.

Whenever they talked she remembers why even with the Cloud debacle they never fought, friendship just came easy between them.

"I," Aerith dragged out the pronoun, "have a nice surprise for you."

"Me too," Tifa said, shifting her phone to her shoulder and pinning it down with her cheek as she opened the oven door. _Another five minutes. At most._

"Me first. Tomatoes," Aerith said smugly, "I have a new patch of them growing right now."

"…Tomatoes"

"Don't use that tone on me. There is nothing better than fresh, local grown food. You wanted to attract more customers right? Better ingredients, duh. I'm a genius."

"Yeah, yeah," because Aerith is right. Not that city food is usually better quality, just Aerith's. She's an herbalist by trade and spends more time growing medicinal herbs than food, but Tifa's pretty sure she could grow anything she wanted in just city cement and fog.

"So what's your surprise?"

"Cookies."

"You have my attention. What kind?"

"Chocolate chip."

"Ugh, your surprise is way better," she feigns a hurt tone, "Tell me you put almonds in it. You should almonds in it."

"No, my kitchen is no democracy. It is a dictatorship."

"Then consider this your notice of rebellion, I'll be there in an hour to liberate said cookies."  
"You are going to drive all the way out here for cookies," Tifa quirks her brow in amusement.

"I'm very dedicated to cookies," Aerith says dead seriously, "and occasionally my frie-"

**1:44:54 PM**

She feels it first, like a deep, angry rumbling that shakes her house, _her bones_, to the very core. Then the lights of her house sputter out.

"Tifa… did you feel that?" Aerith's voice sounds scared and Aerith was rarely scared of anything.

"Was that an earthquake?" Tifa moved toward the window, lifting pale pink curtains from her view, then her eyes widen; it looks like a piece of hell, reaching and reaching towards the sky, mushroom clouds expanding and billowing up.

"Christ, Aerith it's an explos-"

The buildings are going down like dominoes, sand castles under a rising tide, crumbling underneath the shockwave and heading right for her. Tifa reacts on instinct, her phone drops as she raises her hands to shield her face and twists away from the window before the force rages at the sill and shatters tiny, angry pieces of glass all over her back.

The sound is deafening, like a manic howl or a rash of thunder just above your head, and it punches through her, knocks the wind right out of Tifa and drives her to her knees.

"The phone," her panicked thoughts make no sense. Less than a second later the walls of her house, small but quaint- her own sanctuary, bends and moans. And then they collapse around her, the roof that sheltered her crumbling and breaking down on her head.

**2:15:31 PM**

"Ding," Tifa says through split lips.

Cookies are done, she thinks.

**2:25:23 PM**

In. Out

Inhale, exhale.

Tifa listens to her own breathing. The human body is like a machine.

**2:40:02 PM**

"I should move," Tifa explains to herself but she stays where she is on the floor, she doesn't even bother opening her eyes. She wonders if Cloud is coming for her. Maybe the army, or Marlene and Denzel's parents, or Aerith. But mostly Cloud.

"_Haha, wonder what the look on his face will be_," Tifa smiles.

**2:42:46 PM**

"_Would it be worried,_" Tifa thinks and then frowns. No- no, that's no good. She doesn't want to be baggage.

But the traitorous, selfish part of her would still like that.

**2:43:59 PM**

Inhale

**2:44:31 PM**

Exhale

**2:44:30 PM**

Oh gods, what if Cloud is trapped too?

Tifa finally opens her eyes and immediately a part of her wish she didn't. She suddenly feels more clusterphobic, mean rock and rubble that was once her home close around her, suffocating her and her movements. It's dark with just enough visibility to mock her about the seriousness of her situation. She's going to die here.

Who knows where Cloud is, and Marlene, and Denzel, and Aerith- oh god Aerith was _scared_ on the phone. She's going to die not knowing if they're okay, and worse is the guilt that her first thoughts were of Cloud. But even through that guilt she can't stop thinking about it.

**2:48:07 PM**

"_Don't think like that, Tifa, act._"

She knows if she panics now then she may as well be dead. She was right by the wall, so close to the outside that if she could just make a little headway she could be free. She has little room, but enough for some movement, so she shifts her head to the right.

She's lucky.

She doesn't feel lucky, she feels almost broken, and bruised to hell, and terrified of everything, but she still is lucky. The lower piece of the wall was still intact and standing, it held up a piece of the floor above that now acted like a roof, sheltering her from any debris that threatened to crush her, and it sloped down to her other side. A short triangle of safe space.

Tifa moves her head up, not really up, just in front. No way getting out that way, it's packed solid. Tifa looks past her feet then. It's better but she's still doubtful she can escape.

No, she can. She has to.

**2:50:20 PM**

Exhale.

Kick.

She launches a powerful blow with her right leg to knock out a beam that was in her way. She's pretty sure she gave out a guttural shout when she did. Or maybe just wheezed out something. She can't tell with the ringing in her ears.

The beams splintered and gave her a way out without the entire roof crashing down again. That's a good sign. The dust is so thick she can feel it filling her lungs, so she rips off a piece of her shirt, puts it to her mouth, and begins to breathe through it. Better.

**2:52:32 PM**

She begins to crawl backwards but doesn't realize until it's too late that the glass is still littering the floor. She ignores the tinkling of the glass as it slices her hands and pricks her knees. Inch by inch, she leaves her space but her predicament beyond her triangle isn't much better; still too much floor and wall and roof, clusters of stones and wood and brick and still no sky. Where does she go from here? She doesn't even think about what if she shifted around too much the entire thing falls down on her; doesn't think about it at all.

She's just moving with strength and determination she never knew she had. It's slow and cautious, but she's patient. Always patient.

**2:59:21 PM**

It feels like days. Has it been days? Or hours? Or maybe just seconds, and that was a scary thought.

"Just keep moving," she pushes away the rubble and pieces of home. She's digging upward with raw fingers now; she is pretty sure it is upward. If she gets lost in the mass of packed dust and rocks she just spits. Spit falls to the ground and she climbs to the sky, simple enough to remember.

**3:05:52 PM**

Oh crap.

She moves the wrong thing and the debris begins to lean into her, but she isn't crushed. She must be near the surface then, not much left on top of her. It's a comforting thought as she struggles not to be completely pinned by one large slab of her roof. It weighs down on her back; her knees are buckling as she fights to stay upright and if her legs give in a little she is sure she'll stop there forever.

**3:06:30 PM**

She finds every bit of strength, every inch of muscle she has left, and by all that is good- if she were ever half the woman she thought she was-if she were half the woman anyone ever thought she was… she would throw off this _god forsaken rock_.

Inhale.

**3:06:50 PM**

_Push._

Scream.

Exhale.

In whatever order.

**3:07:45 PM**

She's free, on top of her ruins. And after climbing upwards for so long, she falls down exhausted on all the splinters and edged rocks.

She still can't see. Clouds of dust from her house- all the surrounding houses- from the rest of the city- make the air opaque with damage; thick with destruction and dead. She wipes the sweat off her brow, and then frowns. Why is her sweat red?

"Oh it's blood," she thinks, she's bleeding on her head, hands, and knees, and probably everywhere. And where there is no bleeding she's most likely bruised. She needs help.

Help.

"Is anyone there!" she shouts with whatever strength she has, "I need help!"

She can't see anything, so she strains herself to hear; faint sounds of car alarms, maybe the sounds of some houses that are still falling apart. There are no people; nobody else replying to her cry for help, no one crying for help themselves, no footsteps, no breathing, no running, not even birds or dogs barking.

**3:09:59 PM**

Tifa blinks through the blood pouring over her eyes and the long dark hair matted around her face and only one thought crosses her mind;

"This is how the world ends."

* * *

A/N: So I was writing a completely other story when I realized after so long of not doing anything, I pretty much forgotten how to write. I mean, I was never the best before, but for some reason now it was especially hard. So I scrapped that and came up with this multi chaptered story as a way to help me overcome the writers block and get me back into practice. Although it's not as much overcoming writers block as it is applying enough blunt force trauma until something breaks. You know, the American way.

So I'm just splurge writing now, and if I'm going to overcome this I might as well with a character that I love (Tifa), and something that I've always found fun (apocalypse survival stories) which I have no experience in writing. So I'm enjoying it. As of now I have five very rough drafts finished and planning to start the sixth.

Some technical things: Tifa centric and I have plans to have at least all of Cosmos's Warriors at least make a cameo, and plans for a lot of Chaos's warriors as well. But they are scattered throughout the story and might not come around till much later. Other characters from games will be mentioned in passing, but if they aren't in the Dissidia/012 then they won't be showing up as story characters. And the prologue isn't indicative of how the story is written, as in present tense and broken down through time. That's solely done for the prologue and a few flashbacks.

… Which totally goes against the whole point of the introduction. OH WELL.


	2. Chapter 1: Faces in the Crowd

_Days After_

Chapter 1: Faces in the Crowd

_Two Weeks Later_

"Quietly," Tifa silently scolded herself as the piece of mailbox she accidently kicked clanged, echoing horribly loud in the emptiness of Mysidia Street. She tried to cross the area as quickly and as noiselessly as she could, the contradictions between speed and sound made her nerves a mess. It would have been a better idea to go through the alleyways and avoid the major streets altogether, but they were too easy to get lost in. She just wasn't as familiar with this part of the city.

The entire place may as well have been a desert. Half the city was an ocean of dirt and rubble, pieces of buildings scattered across the streets and bent street signs decorated sidewalks. The buildings that weren't broken still managed to look miserable, covered in ash and standing lonely in the cracked, smoky horizon. Even with most of the dust settled Tifa swore that the days just looked darker; like that day permanently stained the sky. Telephone wires tangled around the destruction like vines, cars crushed like they were made of cardboard instead of steel. And there was glass everywhere, even when you couldn't see it, it stuck to the soles of your shoes and ruined them. She's going to need new ones soon.

She ducked under the cover a NOW SHOWING: LOVELESS sign that was hanging upside down off the side of the movie theater, scraping the sidewalk with its hard edge.

"_Almost there, just need to cross the intersection_," she mentally noted as she shifted the straps of her peered from her cover ever so cautiously at her target, a small but still largely intact corner store. From the outside it looked like one of those local mom and pop stores where the owners lived right on top of it. She thought transforming her bar to something like that, but that felt like forever ago. Can't think about that now.

The streets looked deserted, but it was still a risk. Tifa knew she would just to embrace it though because she really needed to replenish her supplies. She could feel the lightness of her backpack and there was almost nothing left.

She ran down the intersection hoping nothing could notice her; she was always fast; even in grade school she could outrun and outclimb almost all the boys her age. She hoped that counted for something now. No one seemed to see her so she was fine, although she felt kind of silly running like a madwoman for an audience of none. She looked at the store up close; the windows are blocked by curtains, so if Tifa wanted to go in, she had to go in blind. She tried to open the store door and when it didn't come easy she put her shoulder into it, and the door slammed open with screeching joints.

It was too dark to see, even with the light that poured in from behind her. Tifa debated in her head for a half a second on whether or not to use her flashlight, but she knew that the battery life was running on empty.

She felt her way to the windows and grabbed the cloth over them. They hadn't been curtains, she realized, someone had covered up the windows with blankets or bed sheets; she ripped them off with a good yank, letting the nails clink on the floor followed shortly by a flittering of the floral sheet. That was better.

Tifa surveyed the now lit store, and let out the breath she was holding, "All gone." Whatever the store was carrying, it was stripped bare.

"_All the way for nothing,"_ and she couldn't helped but feel the bitter disappoint choke her throat. She knew it was a long shot, looters had taken most of everything now, turning what was left in this city inside out. Wrappers and broken packages sprawled all over the floor, the shop had been divided by rows of portable wooden shelves, but most of the shelves were either splintered on the ground or empty. She put her hand up to her face, letting it rest above her eyes, and gave her a few seconds to wallow.

Her seconds were up, she went back to work. There had to be _something_, she just needed to search thoroughly; maybe she could find something small and easily looked over. And even if she couldn't- it wouldn't be a complete waste; it would be dark soon and this was just as good a place as any to hold up. She could easily find a lone corner and use the window coverings as a blanket. If she was really lucky she was right about the home above the store and she might even get a comfortable bed for the night.

She bent down to the lower shelves, pushing past the useless boxes, a few strange trinkets, and a packets of pencils. She found a few forgotten candy bars but the rest she wouldn't bother wasting space for- "_what was that?_"

She looked in the space between the bottom of the shelves and the floor, there was a lighter. "Probably a looters or an old customers," she mused getting up on her knees, it was too nice looking for anything that would have been sold here- stainless steel with a small logo of a crowned cat and the initials RT embedded in gold. She put what she found in her backpack.

"See, not a total waste-" something slammed into Tifa, hard, and knocked her on her stomach. Wasting no time she immediately rolled to her back and dodged the incoming strike. A hand struck the floor with a blind rage, and a face turned to her, eyes insane. It was marred with stripes of flesh, whether or not it was skin from another person or it just clawed out chunks of his own face, she had no idea. It was manikin, so both scenarios were just as likely.

Tifa swore as it launched on her again, making inhuman noises as it flailed, desperate to strangle, claw, kill her with abnormal strength. She grabbed its arms to stop its attacks.

"_How did it get here? Through the door? Was I not careful enough and something saw me? Was it in the shop and I didn't see it?"_ her thoughts were a mile a minute.

"Get. Off. Of. Me," Tifa growled (Aerith would have laughed at the idea of her growling).

"Get off off off meee," it repeated her words back as it threw its weight into her, "off of me." It began to shriek in an eerie tone, between rage and sobbing and something monstrous.

Tifa pulled its wrists farther, then kneed it in the groin. She didn't know if it still was able to understand pain but it still screeched in a fury and the force knocked it back far enough for Tifa to get her foot planted on its stomach and use her strength to kick it off. It crashed into the stands behind and tumbled to the ground.

Tifa rolled to her hands and feet to get up but the manikin recovered quickly, then it lunged at her, grabbing her leg and began clawing and biting at it.

"Get off of mee," it was still screeching hysterically as it proceeded to shred her leg, ripping the skin off and then digging deeper.

Tifa's hand reached out to grab something, anything, and found it wrapped around a piece of broken shelf. She pushed off her hands and twisted to face her attacker, the manikin paused to look at her face before letting go of her leg and attempting to claw that off, but Tifa moved first and planted the sharp end of her makeshift weapon right through its eye.

It died instantly, its body crumpled to the ground in an undignified heap.

Tifa hugged knees and struggled to catch her breath. There weren't many people that could get the best of her, she'd been able to throw drunk men twice her size out of her bar with relative ease. But these manikins were something else, she wasn't sure if they were physically stronger, too crazy to know their limits, or that the adrenaline made it seem that way. She'd leave that to scientists and philosophers.

She used her foot to turn the manikin over, he was a man once. Long beige trenchoat, the light brown hair framing his face was pulled into a short ponytail; he looked a little bit like a cowboy. And he use to be young, college age, she could see that even with the bloody slashes marks on its face. But whatever he was before died a long time ago and what she killed wasn't a person.

"_Rest in peace, asshole_."

She wasn't quite sure what manikins were, except that they were once people and they popped up a day or two after the initial explosion (or earthquake, or government conspiracy, or alien invasion. Depended on who you asked). A large chunk of the survivors that day eventually turned into those manikins, although when they turned differed from person to person. It spread like the plague and Tifa hoped that by not turning yet meant she was immune.

Finally calmed down, she began to walk away from the dead body.

Just looking at them made her sick; they were monsters- too strong, too resilient (she's seen manikins get riddled with bullets and still charge away), too mad to be any less. They attacked people, with hands, with weapons, with anything they could find. Once she had seen a manikin _eat_ a person, and Tifa still had nightmares about that. Most of the time they just wandered, echoing old words with no meaning, barely aware of anything around them.

The minute it saw a person, or even just thought they saw a person, it was different, they went into this heightened sense of awareness, this ridiculous frenzy that just _attacked_ and screamed. They were stuff of nightmares. Most of them ripped at their own faces, she even saw manikins that stripped their victim's faces off and put it on their own.

Huh, that's probably how the nickname got so widespread. "_I just caught that_." It suited them; manikins were just bad, creepy imitations of the people they once were, almost indistinguishable from the general populace except the occasional decorations of guts and blood- the one way you could always tell though was through the strange crystalized sheen over their eyes.

Tifa let a hesitant hand touch her leg, she'd survive but the manikin really tore it up. She grimaced, she would have liked to wash it out or bandage it but there wasn't enough to spare of either for anything less than a dire emergency. And she didn't trust any stray cloth in the store enough to put on a direct wound. She would just have to deal and pray it didn't get infected.

When the second manikin came from behind her, Tifa was more alert. She dodged it outstretched arms by dropping down, sweeping the floor with her leg and knocking the manikin off its feet.

Straightening up again, she grabbed the row of shelves next to her and pulled it down to crush the manikin's face. It didn't die; instead it screamed and thrashed like a wounded animal, blood seeping around the floor. Tifa put her foot on the stand to grind its head into oblivion.

"Wait I love you," it said and Tifa hesitated. She knew it was stupid, manikins parroted things all the time; this could have been something it said before it turned or the words of the person it last killed. Tifa knew this but it still stopped her in her tracks.

"Wait, please, I love you."

It was only a half a second but in that half a second a new pair of arms lunged at her from nowhere, and Tifa barely just danced out of its reach. It was just enough time for the manikin she was about to kill to throw off the shelf, and she could see that the blow left deep gashes on its red splattered face. It didn't even slow it down, the manikin pushed itself up from the floor, screaming and crying and declaring its love.

Two manikins, this is exactly what she didn't need when she was already hungry and exhausted with a bleeding leg that was beginning to radiate more and more pain. She glanced around trying to figure out what her best options and they both suddenly dashed to her, arms open and if she didn't know any better she would have thought they wanted to hug her.

She pivoted on her good leg, twisted a few inches away from their grasp, grabbed the wrist of the closest one and pulled it to the floor. She tried to duck under the incoming swipe of the second manikin, but it managed to grab a fistful of her long, dark hair.

"_Oh cra_-_"_ the manikin jerked her head towards itself, almost wrenching her hair out of her scalp. Tifa used both her hands to grab the offending grasp and secured it to her own head, then maneuvered one of her bent arms above the manikin's elbow. She rotated her body downward which dragged along the manikin's, and sent a low kick the back of the manikin's knee to knock it off its balance. Before she could follow it up with a punch, the other manikin grabbed the ankle of her bad leg and began to tug her into a stumble.

It was getting really bad, she shifted her focus to the manikin at her ankle and tried to shake him off, but the manikin with her hair began to viciously yank her again.

She spared a glance out of her periphery at the manikin with her hair, and felt the beginnings of panic. All of a sudden the manikin's head jolted forward with a violence, shuddering before collapsing, revealing a pink haired woman standing behind it.

Almost immediately, a severe crack came from behind her, a hooded man had crashed a metal rod to the skull of the other manikin, and under the force its head at an impossible angle.

"That should be all of them," the mystery woman said, bending down and yanking an expensive looking dagger out of the back of the manikin's kneck. The man gave the slightest inclination of a nod.

"Are you okay?" a third voice came from near the door, and another woman with shoulder length brown hair approached her, "Your leg is really torn up."

The woman put a gentle but firm hand on Tifa's shoulder, guiding both of them to the floor.

"I'm sorry, I don't know who you guys are..." Tifa started, staring at them warily. She'd seen enough of what the survivors became to know that meeting new friends wasn't exactly an exercise in safety; many turned into looters, tyrants, opportunists, and those were the sane ones.

"Don't worry, I'm a doctor. My name's Yuna, the others are Kain and Lightning," she said soothingly and Tifa instantly calmed down despite of herself, her shoulders drooped and back muscles that she didn't realize she had tightened became loose. Yuna was oddly was peaceful, maybe it was her soft features, the subtle smile that never seemed to leave, or just the way she moved, smooth like slow running water.

And oh, her eyes are interesting, one green and one blue, they maybe the second prettiest eyes she had ever seen (the first were as blue as the ocean is deep, and sometimes she feels just as expansive).

"Tifa," she eventually replied, "Tifa Lockhart. It's quite a coincidence that you guys decided to hel-" when she realized how accusatory that sounded to people who were just as well were her rescuers she stopped, "I mean really. Thank you. I guess I'm not really used to people helping others out anymore."

"Yeah well, most of us don't bother being a humanitarian when half the world isn't even human anymore," the Lightning said sparing a glance at Yuna. They may have been the sun and the moon for all their differences, those two; where Yuna radiated a soft feminine elegance, Lightning was like raw uncut diamond, rough around the edges but still striking- more handsome than anything else. Dirty pink hair spiked on one side and contradicting waves on the other, with serious blue-green eyes that were calculating her as much as Tifa was studying Lightning.

"_She was a cop,"_ Tifa noted at looking at her light blue top.

"Was there nothing left in the store?" Kain demanded, and Tifa felt her back tense up again.

Lightning noticed her reaction; "Relax. If we were going to rob you, we already would have."

Tifa looked away like a scolded child, because she knew if that they were just regular muggers they would have let her die.

_How did I become this, "_There was alighter and some candy bars. I didn't get a complete look around but from what I can tell the store is stripped, if I had anything to bet I would say this entire bloc has been scarce has been for a while."

Lightning gave an exasperated sigh, "Right."

"There's nothing much we can do about that, but your leg is a different story. It's not as bad as it looks, just take care so it doesn't get infected," Yuna poured her own water down Tifa's leg to wash out the cuts, and began to wrap the leg with bandages (Lightning looked exasperated at her wasting their supplies), and her voice was as dignified and sweet as her movements.

Tifa bowed her head in polite gratitude, "Thank you. I don't know what would have happened to me if you guys hadn't been there."

"You'd be dead or pretty close to it probably," Lightning mused; by now Tifa had a good enough handle on Lightning's personality and wasn't bothered by her excessively frank nature.

"We should concentrate less on the whati-ifs and more on the now, at the moment. The sun is setting soon," said Kain, it was difficult to get a good look at him, the hood ran low on his face, partially hiding the nose up, although Tifa spot a strand of long blond hair peaking out. There was something about facelessness that made her nervous. The fact that his height made him towering over the rest of the women didn't help, but she was in no place to judge.

"We'll make do here," Yuna said, then paused and looked at Tifa, "if that's okay with you."

Tifa cracked her first smile and it felt a little stiff like it was out of practice, "Hey, not my house to say otherwise. But I'd welcome the company."

Lightning let out a long suffering sigh, the kind that made Tifa guess she wasn't huge on charity but couldn't find a reason to object, "Then I'm going to search the store, Kain you should scout the immediate area. _Quietly_." Tifa guessed with his build (lean but still muscular) he was better at brute strength rather than stealth, "And Yuna can watch the new one." _And make sure she doesn't try anything funny - _ she didn't need to add

That was fine by Tifa. She wasn't going anywhere.

-x-

It wasn't until the sunset that all of their preparation to sleep started coming together, and Tifa wasn't quite sure if they would get much of it anyway.

Kain returned no worse for wear, all of the manikins Kain had spotted were distant enough that they wouldn't just randomly attack them. But still, they'd be as quiet as they could be just in case.

The locks were broken on the door (My fault, Tifa admitted), so they had leaned a stand against it; it was a crude barricade that wouldn't stop a horde of manikins but enough to prevent any uninvited guests from wandering in. One of the windows was bare since Tifa pulled down the bedsheet, and it glared into the store like an obtrusive peeper, but there wasn't anything they could do about it now. Not unless they wanted to make a racket nailing it back into place anyway. They'd just have to avoid that area, and at least they had that blanket spread on the floor.

Yuna had taken the bodies of the manikin and piled them somewhere they didn't have to look at their deranged corpes, but not before bowing her head in a sort of prayer for them. It seemed odd to pray over manikins, but she supposed Yuna was just able to see the people they once were in them.

"_She's a better person than I am_," Tifa quietly contemplated. She'd just them all burn.

Lightning volunteered to keep the first watch, then Yuna, then Tifa (neither Lightning or Kain didn't seem to agree with the idea of the new girl taking watch without supervision, but didn't seem to particularly disagree either), and then Kain.

Lightning made a firm, "We head out at dawn," and then stationed herself just next to the uncovered window, just out of place enough where she couldn't be seen. As if by impulse, she absentmindedly took out her dagger and studied it in a way that told Tifa it wasn't just a weapon to her. Lightning pulled out a well stained rag and she began to clean it carefully, as if it wasn't a dagger but something more fragile and precious.

"So, where are you headed?" Yuna asked as Tifa settled down on the piece of wall next to her.

"North, to Midgar Street," Tifa said with longing in her voice, then turned to Yuna, "Did you guys happen to pass there?"

"Ah, no, we came East from Bohdom Square," Yuna replied.

"Maybe you can help me anyway. I'm looking for someone, have any of you seen a guy with spiky hair," Tifa asked, pointing her fingers upward as a demonstration.

"There are a lot of guys with spiky hair out there, you're going to have to get more specific," Lightning replied, cautiously stealing a quick look out the window.

"His name is Cloud, blond hair, spikes more on the right, five seven, and," Tifa paused, "Really blue eyes." She couldn't go on without dipping into sappy poetry territory; Cloud's eyes had been the most striking them about him, bluer than should be legally allowed, they were beautiful and frightening all at the same time. "The kind of blue that you don't forget," and then Tifa immediately felt silly afterwards but thankfully no one commented it.

"And a woman, Aerith, very slim, just a tad shorter than me, long brown hair and green eyes," green eyes that felt they just knew the world, but this time Tifa kept that to herself.

"I can't think of anybody. But I'm searching too," and then the group exchanged their lost love ones, "His name is Tidus, tanned skin, blond hair, blue eyes (there's a lot of them out there, huh?), He's a little under five ten? He's actually a player for the Zanarkand Abes."

Yuna spoke softly like she was telling a secret, and when she said he's on the Zanarkand Abes she smiled like a fond memory, and afterwards her smile slipped back into reality of the situation.

"My... My younger sister, Serah, she's in college right now. She's got my color hair, just nicer and longer, she usually puts it in a side ponytail. She's around Yuna's height, but smaller. Not in height, just she's just got a really delicate frame and looks… small."

It was the first time Tifa saw a break in Lightning's professionalism, there was something about the way she said her sister's name that breaks hearts. That moment passed quickly.

"I am looking for someone. But I'm not sure if I want to find him," is all Kain offered. Tifa could see he plays his cards closer to his chest than even Lightning.

"It's hard to believe I've been searching for him for two weeks," Yuna hummed to herself, "But I have faith I'll find him."

"Are you searching my way?" Tifa asked.

"That would have been nice. But I'm headed to Saint Yevon Hospital."

Tifa's entirety darkened instantly, "I wouldn't."

The turnaround caught Lightning's attention, "You've been there?"

"Not specifically the hospital, but I came from around the area. The entire downtown area is completely infested with manikins in a way I haven't seen anywhere else, I'm surprised I even made it out. If there were any survivors they would have left."

Lightning swore a little too loudly, earning a glare from Kain (Tifa assumed it was a glare, it was hard to see under his hood).

"We'll need to change plans," Kain said in time-for-business tone, "I suppose North will do as any other direction, do you know if they are continuing to spread?"

Tifa shook her head, "It was too crazy for me to actually get a good grasp on what was going on. But it was really bad and it was getting worse by the second," she shook her head, "I don't know how many people survived or if it's contained swarm but that part of town is floding in dead bodies and I'm going the other way."

Tifa had never been a coward. She'd been afraid and been over her head, but she had always been able to confront what was in her path and she never backed down. And she still didn't believe herself to be a coward, but the second coming couldn't convince her back there.

The red, the screams, the _children-_ there was nothing left.

"I'm going," Yuna's declaration pulled Tifa away from her thoughts.

"_What_?" chorused Tifa and Lightning like a comedy skit, only with suicide as a punch line.

"I'm going to Saint Yevon Hospital."

"Yuna, you don't understand," but Yuna gave Tifa a look, one that was strong but tired, hopeful but realistic, one that told Tifa that she did understand. Her back was straight and proud, like a woman ready for her wedding, or a war. Or both.

"That hospital is the best chance of finding Tidus-"  
"If Tidus is alive," Lightning said with all the compassion of a knife in the gut.

"Yes," Yuna said with no less determination.

"There is no best chance if you're dead. If this is half as bad as Tifa claims, we'll die before we even get to see the building."

"I will not turn back on the only chance I have to see him. I'll fight if I have to, I'll crawl. But I won't run away."

Lightning's frustration was visibly growing, "This isn't just about you, Yuna. I'm not dying for a chance in the dark, _less than_ a chance in the dark." _I have people I need to see too_ Tifa could hear her say.

Yuna stared at Lightning a half a heartbeat longer than normal, "I have to do this."  
"Then you can die on your own," she said disgusted.

"I have to agree with Lightning," Kain finally stepped in, "I can't run into a fight I know I won't win for something that won't be there. If you want help, I will offer as much help as I can but I cannot agree with it."  
Yuna smiled despite everything. _She smiled_. And then said, "No, you're not my guardians. I'm not asking anyone to come with me. It's just something that I need to do."

And you can't argue with something said like that, Tifa reflected. She didn't like it, but she was a stranger three hours ago and had no right telling her what to do.

She hadn't wanted this. She had only met them just now and she was part of the reason they were splitting up. There was something so warm about Yuna that Tifa didn't want to be the person who puts a person like Yuna in harm's way without any help.

And neither Kain nor Lightning seemed like the type of people that traveled with others, Yuna had probably been the only thing keeping them together; even if it wasn't out of some strange form of sentimentality, but the practicality of having of a doctor traveling with you. Tifa doubted she could inspire that kind of unity in anyone.

"Are you sure Yuna?" Tifa finally asked.

"Yes."

So they said nothing else and settled in for the night, hungry, weary, and angry.

Tifa was right about one thing, they didn't have much sleep at all.

* * *

A/N: What could be more redundant than an AU about Dissidia. Huh.

You know what has the potential to be boring: an apocalypse survival story where all your characters are heroes. They would make all the "right" choices regardless of the consequences when asking the same moral questions: leave that child out to die and save your crew- or risk everyone to save them? Steal this from others? Kill the possible traitor? they would all fundamentally pick the same option.

I guess that problem is more mitigated with Dissidia 012... maybe. They are all still fundamentally good people although Lightning in the beginning of her game definitely walked away from a group of survivors being massacred in order to find Serah and Kain is a strange case altogether.

I think the only other real problem is trying to set the rules of the manikins. I resorted to a long exposition/information dump that if it were any less subtle I would have just interrupted my fic with a large list of how manikins works with bulletin points.

Manikins are something between zombies in Left 4 dead and the reavers in Firefly - this is a mark of terrible writing when I have to explain in further details in the notes but quoting other games would have been tacky. But regardless, manikins are batshit crazy with reduced mental capacity, but still capable of some higher function.


	3. Chapter 2: Shakespearean Tragedy

_Days After_

Chapter 2: Shakespearean Tragedy

_Day 0_

**9:03:04 AM**

Lightning is drowning. Not in any ocean or river, but in paperwork.

**9:12:56 AM**

Lightning wishes she was drowning in an ocean instead.

She has been staring at the same sheet of paper for the last twenty minutes and she's positive she read it top to bottom at least three times, but for the life of her she can't recognize a single word.

"It's paperwork Farron, not the freaking bible," a hand places itself between her and the paper.

"You're more than welcome to help me worship it, too," Lightning tells the hand while she attempts to swat it away. The hand chuckles.

"You made a joke Officer Farron, an unfunny one, but still a joke- which officially means you are overworked and overtired," the hand becomes attached to her superior, a round bellied, copper skinned man who with a look of perpetual amusement across his face.

"It's only nine in the morning, and everyone in this department is overworked and overtired, Lieutenant," Lightning mumbles going back to glaring at her papers stupidly.

"Not everyone stays overnight when they don't need to," he shoots back.

Lightning would have groaned but Farrons don't groan, so she settles for putting her elbows on her mess of a desk and massaging the temples on her head, willing the tired to sap away. It doesn't work.

"If you're trying to impress your way to detective, I should inform you that the written exam is still mandatory."

Lightning looks up so fast that she heard the crack of her own neck. She winces a bit.

"That's not it. I just really need to finish this and- ah, not that I'm not interested in detective, I just-"

She would be lying if she says she didn't want detective so much that it is painful. Serah just recently started attending Balamb University, and no amount of the absolute pride Lightning has in her helps her with the enormity of the bills coming in. Student loans and a partial scholarships help, but they only do so much. Serah continues to insist that Lightning doesn't need to help and she could pay the bills on her own, a statement that almost made Lightning's eyes roll to the back of her head and foam out the mouth.

Since she was a teenager and her parents died, Lightning swore she would give Serah a better life, and the one thing she wants Serah to do more than anything else is pursue her dreams without worrying about the money. That is her job, Serah only needs to worrying about living a good life.

And… well, a small part of her really wants the promotion for herself as well.

Her Lieutenant just laughs, "You'll make it Farron, but only if you don't kill yourself first. Get some rest."

**9:20:20 AM**

Lightning accepts that there will be no divine revelation coming from the papers anytime soon. So she puts them away, takes her keys and leaves for home.

**9:27:42 AM**

She is going to sleep the rest of the day away, Lightning decides as she pulls out of her parking space at a breakneck speed.

**9:31:14 AM**

That was a lie; she would probably clean the house, pay the bills, and then do some grocery shopping. But a nap first, definitely.

**10:20:43 AM**

Lightning fumbles for her house keys, while attempting to suppress a yawn.

As she steps through the door, she comes to the realization she is much more tired than she realized.

**10:21:50 AM**

"Surprise! Happy Birthday!"

Lightning swears mentally.

**10: 23:23 AM**

Lightning lets Serah guide her by the arm, only because she looks so damned excited and is wearing this ridiculously large grin on the face, like she won a blitzball tournament or she just heard that there is cheesecake falling from the sky. Lightning knows why she is so proud, she pulled off an impressive effort of decoration, colorful balloons fill the rooms and bright streamers looping the ceiling. There is a lot of love put into this, she knows.

Lightning's thankful that even with this forced surprise (and she hates surprises), that Serah had the good sense not to invite other people. Serah understands Lightning and knows that she just doesn't do well with crowds. That or Lightning just doesn't have any friends for Serah to invite.

**10:34:45 AM**

"Open it," Serah encourages, eyes dancing, so Lightning opens her carefully wrapped present.

Ah, it's a dagger, a remarkably smart looking one at that. Lightning can't help but admire it; Serah has strangely good sense when it came to things like this, something you wouldn't expect in the wide eyed girl.

Still, "How much did it cost?"

"You seriously aren't going to ask how much your _birthday_ present costs. It costs all of my love, that's what."

Lighting eyes her warily, "Aren't you supposed to be in school."

Serah waves off the deflection, "My class doesn't start until one thirty. I have plenty of time. And I'm not letting you nag me this entire birthday surprise. Not when we need to cut cake."

Lightning sighs and gives in, she's right. She would do this for Serah.

**10:40:02 AM**

"Wait, what's that on your finger… Is that a _ring!?"_

**10:55:29 AM**

They spend the next fifteen minutes fighting. Or at least Lightning yelling and just barely restraining herself from throwing anything she can get her hands on while Serah tries to diffuse her.

Serah got _engaged_, and worse she is engaged to a buffoon. Serah states her that she was planning to tell Lightning together with Snow, that she forgot she had the ring on and they had every intention of asking for her blessing first.

Lightning wants to tell her that Serah's too young, that she needs time to experience her life and marriage can wait later. She wants Serah to finish college, to travel the world, to become a teacher first. That's why Lightning pays for her school, that's why Lightning doesn't want Serah stuck in an early marriage. Even though Snow is a good man at heart (as much as Lightning loathes to admit) and would do his absolute best for Serah the rest of his life, but he needs to grow up too. She has to understand that this is a hard commitment with more consequences when you are so young.

But Lightning, being Lightning, just says, "Hell no."

Never. Not in a million years. Snow is an idiot and so are you if you are actually plan on marrying him.

"Worst birthday ever."

**12:02:14 AM**

Serah is driving away back to her university, she hides her face so the big sister she loves more than the whole world wouldn't see the tears swelling in her eyes, but Lightning spots them anyway.

**12:10: 20 AM**

Lightning drops on the couch and closes her eyes. Gods she regrets it, she didn't want to make Serah upset. She still hates Snow and hates the idea of Serah getting married. Just… she didn't want to yell at Serah.

She doubts she'll sleep at all with all this mess in her head-

**1:44:54 AM**

Something wakes Lightning up from a dead sleep, something angry and deep.

"Serah?"

No that's not right, she should be in class right now; Lightning jolts out of the couch, ready for the… whatever that's coming.

But she doesn't expect her world exploding.

**2:05:34 AM**

She looks out at all the devastation she managed to escape, the horizon filled with broken things like people and homes, and thinks to herself about how stupid she is.

The whole damn world is gone, it's fucking gone, and she spent the last few hours doing paperwork and screaming at the one person she loves.

"Serah."

-x-

Dawn broke the night, offending all of Tifa's senses. She wanted to crawl deeper into bed, selfishly pull the covers over her face and sleep peacefully in the warmth of her blankets until tomorrow. But she wasn't in her bed, she wasn't in her room, and she had no blanket. So she woke up.

It took a minute to reorient her thoughts and remember what happened to night before, the manikins, her new acquaintances, and Yuna's determination to leave the group march towards her death. When it came to her, she looked around and realized wasn't the last one up. Kain and Yuna had started their routine, but Lightning surprisingly enough was still resting in the corner, her eyes closed and arms crossed. She figured Lighting would have been the first to wake, so Tifa moved to rouse her from sleep.

"Serah," Lightning said and Tifa paused for a second. Hadn't Lightning said that was her sister's name- she really shouldn't intrude on such an intimate moment, even if it was just a dream. But she put a gentle hand on her shoulder anyway.

Lightning's hand snapped to her shoulder defensively, looked at Tifa, then relaxed.

"I think we're getting ready to leave," Tifa offered a hand which Lightning ignored.

Tifa shrugged and took out the candy bar she found in the store and bit into it, famished; she always tried to ration carefully and that usually meant sacrificing dinner. She could go to sleep hungry, but not having breakfast meant that she had no energy for the day and that had lethal consequences.

"Chocolate chips almonds," she said and for a second it sounded like a broken heart, a bit of memory lodged in her throat. She chewed it slowly, hoping the illusion would make it stay longer. Yuna, Kain, and Lightning had their own cans of miscellaneous stuffs from their own bags, but then began a fervent discussion when they realized they needed the find a fair way to split to their supplies now.

"I'm going to check things out around the block," Tifa said. _It's best for them to sort it out themselves_, she reasoned as she pushed the shelves out of the door's way.

It wasn't going to be an easy day, it was cool enough but the humidity suffocated the air, clinging to her like a second skin. It wasn't a deal breaker in any case, but it was just one more thing that weighed you down.

Tifa quietly crept around the buildings, ducking behind anything that looked like cover. There were a few manikins out in the distance, but given enough space they didn't seem to care too much about what was going on. One particular manikin, however, was right in their way.

It would have been a funny sight if Tifa didn't know any better. It was just clawing at the side of a broken down building, running its fingers up and down the brick like it was trying to remember how to climb.

Tifa could move like silk when she wanted to, smooth and beautiful. Then she raised her leg, kicked, and ground the manikin's face to the brick wall before it knew what was happening, smashing its skull.

On the ground Tifa could look at it closer, its fingers were bruised and bloodied, it must had been at the wall for a good while. Maybe it would have continued on that for the rest of its miserable existence. She didn't know what to think about that.

"You ready?" Lightning asked when Tifa returned.

"Yeah. There are a few manikins around, but they shouldn't be a problem and I took care of the only one that was in our way," when Lightning nodded Tifa turned to Yuna.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yes."

"You really shouldn't go, but if you are really going at least listen to his; take it slow, maybe even give it a day for things to settle down because the manikins were going insane out there. Avoid Besaid Street, take the side roads and stick to the alleyways. Your best bet is to go through Wall Street since it was less populated."

Tifa paused, and then gave her a real serious look, one that said, "_You're going to die out there."_ Yuna smiled. She must do that a lot, Tifa knew, even in situations where there was nothing to smile about.

"You know, I'm a doctor. My father was a doctor. I've been surrounded by dying people since before I could understand what living really is. I guess why the idea of death never scared me. But not doing everything I can for someone I love, that's terrifying."

Weird. Tifa thought, Weird and beautiful. Tragic and hopeful. Tifa and company began to leave and Yuna bowed her head in the same way she did with the manikins. In a prayer.

Tifa mirrored it as she walked away. Gods know, they both needed it.

-x-

They didn't talk much, but then again there wasn't much to say.

"Oh, how do you are you today?" "Not bad if not for this silly apocalypse, my family is most likely all dead and these creepy monster things out to kill us!" "Great to hear, ohohoho."

Tifa knew it was the humidity getting to her, but she still laughed at her own imaginary conversation, earning a look from Kain.

She guessed it was a "look," it was impossible to tell with that hood that covered most of his face, she wondered if he ever took if off for a second.

"Perhaps we should take a knee for a bit," Kain said and Lightning turned to him frowning, "or we could exhaust ourselves enough for the next manikin to greet us."

Lightning tch'd but seemed to concede.

Kain looked around, "Let's get off the streets."

Tifa knew it was more for her benefit than it was for the group, she spent more time alone and therefore probably more exhausted, and Tifa wanted to point out that she made it this far and she could keep up with the best of them. But truth be told, she was grateful.

"I think there's an intact apartment building somewhere around here," Tifa squinted as she tried to recall her mental map of the area.

Lightning raised a brow, "You've been by this area before?"

"Yeah, it was about a week ago but I'm almost positive I recognize this area. See there, broken radio tower, this is it."

"Hn."

And true enough, they had a little detour on a side road when they met a fairly sizable apartment building. It looked pricier than what the most of the neighborhood could afford back in the more peaceful days, smoky red brick and clean white lining, met with eloquent old styled trimming. It likely was built stronger too, thick doors and even reinforced windows, which why it survived where other buildings didn't, the rich could just afford stronger buildings. But there was no rich or poor left either way, and Tifa motioned them to go to the side of the building, "The front is jammed by debris and there is no back door, but there's a way though the fire escape on the side."

Tifa was relieved to see that her way hadn't been destroyed after she left it, a dangerous steel fire escape snaked down the side of the building with stairs linking all the stories except for the bottom one. Instead there had been a retractable ladder, although as of now it had become stuck halfway. It was high enough that neither people nor manikin could easily reach unless they were good enough to.

"Up there," she said, and then took a running start, rebounded off the brick wall like she was bouncing off air and then caught the ends of the ladder. She effortlessly pulled herself up and then signaled the others to follow her.

Lightning moved like her namesake, and Tifa wondered why this was the first time she realized it. She had always been proud of her own athleticism; she initially had taken martial arts as a way to reassure her father when she decided that she wanted to move to the city. She had excelled and became a favorite of her teacher, to the surprise of her old hometown, and continued even after her father passed. It gave her a sense of pride.

But Lightning took it to an art, she dashed and jumped like a stroke of a brush.

Kain followed suite but he didn't need the wall to jump to that height, he seemed to leisurely just soar through the air, grabbed a part of the lander and vaulted the edge with ridiculous ease.

Lightning didn't seem to react (she had probably all seen it before) and slipped through the open window but Tifa's eyes were as wide as saucers.

"You wouldn't happen to be an Olympian pole-vaulter before all this happened?"

"Pilot."

"Well… I was close?"

"By a few thousand feet," for the first time Tifa could hear a small smile in his voice and she resisted the urge to try and see if he had one on his face, instead choosing to slip through the window behind Lightning.

"It doesn't look like there's anyone in this building," Lightning said dropping her duffel bag and emptying it, "I'm going to see if I can scrounge up anything from the rest of the rooms."

When Lightning left, Tifa turned to Kain, "She's part machine, does she ever just stop?"

"If she does I have yet to see it," he readjusted an upturn chair near what use to be a family dining room table and settled down into it. Tifa sat across from him, glad to be off her feet.

She took out remaining bottle of water she had, and hoping Lightning would find some more, downed the last of it.

It was warm and stale, but as soon as the wetness touched her lips she felt instant relief all the same. It slithered down her throat but she could swear it also went down her spine and relaxed her entire body. She hadn't realized how tense she was, and it only struck her now that she had been sweating far more than she had been drinking.

"That's the last of it," she announced to herself, setting the empty bottle in the middle of the table.

"You're out?"

"Where I was, everything was pretty much picked clean for a while, or at least, someone made their way with all the water. There wasn't much to get," Tifa shrugged, "But we're making good time minus this little rest stop. We could get to the river in no time."

"Drinking river water isn't particularly safe," Kain pointed out.

"Neither is dying of hydration," Tifa ruminated, "I'll boil it first of course. It's the best any of us can do now. Unless it rains soon, which is a possibility. It certainly feels like it's about too."

"What next after the river?" he asked and Tifa realized that they never did iron out the details.

"There's a tunnel that lets us cross the river," she said, "that'll land us near Alexandria crossing. If we had straight North from there we'll eventually find ourselves at Midgar Street. After that…"

Well, she didn't really have an after that. Her plan was Cloud, Aerith, and then who knows.

"You want us to go through the tunnel, the one that runs under the river? Half the city's infrastructure is destroyed, how safe could that be." He sounded incredulous.

"I've been through there, it's still solid as a rock if you can believe it. I heard the other bridges didn't survive though, and that river cuts the city in half. We need to cross it if we want to move forward. We could search for another route, but that might take days."

"You were across the river before?"

"I thought I mentioned it before. I was originally around that area and traveled here."

"You did say you came around here before," Kain agreed, "but not that you crossed half the city, and are now returning. That's quite a journey."

Tifa hummed to herself, trying to think of the right answer without bringing up bad memories and said, "I was searching for some people."

"Cloud and Aerith?" Kain said recalling the names from the conversation earlier.

"No, not this time, I was looking for some people at Shinra Academy."

There was a heartbeat of silence.

"The private grade school near Saint Yevon? Did you find who you were looking for?"

"Yes," Tifa's eyes went downcast, "Just not the way I'd hope."

More silence, and then.

"I'm sorry."

Tifa looked at him with the saddest eyes, red wine with hints of pain. An emotion passed through her face, and it looked as if she was doing the hardest thing by saying, "Me too." It certainly felt hard.

They sat the rest of the time in muted melancholy, but the quiet suited both just fine.

-x-

Lighting returned not too much longer, ignoring the mood and dropping the shoulder bag unceremoniously on the floor, "There wasn't much that was useful, but it wasn't a total waste."

"Any water?" Tifa asked hopefully. Lightning shook her head and Tifa's head lolled on her shoulder in defeat.

But she did pull out a can of tuna, a kitchen knife, a clean towel (Lightning reached in her bag to discard an old, bloodied one), some duct tape, batteries, and a pair of shoes.

"Do these work?" Tifa asked picking up the D batteries.

"They should, but I can't guarantee how much more life they have in them. I took them from things just lying around, remote controls, kid toys, smoke detectors."

Tifa reached in her bag to grab her flashlight and place the battery in it, clicked it on and lo' let there be light. Tifa smiled, "Seems to work well enough."

As Tifa put her flashlight back into her bag, Lightning stripped her boots; they had been crusted with blood and dirt, and completely worn through. Even the laces seemed to have been broken and the whole thing was tied together by bits of tape and string. Tifa glanced at her own, brown muddy tennis shoes. They wouldn't fare much better soon.

"If you are really worried about water, there's an alternative," Lightning said, "the toilets."

Tifa blanched, "No."

"You were talking about drinking river water," Kain pointed out, "You can't be choosy at this point."

"A river is not a toilet. There's a dignity thing here."

"I'll be sure to write it on your tombstone," Lightning snorted, "Here lies Tifa. At least she died a dignified person."

"Yeah, yeah."

They weren't wrong; she couldn't pick and choose where her next meal would be. Tifa grabbed an old tin pot from remains of the kitchen and begrudgingly dragged her feet to the bathroom.

In a flash, the entire world had changed completely; Tifa pondered staring at the toilet. Every comfort she knew and everything she understood was different. She did things she thought she couldn't do. Did things she thought she would never have to do. But there were little things that she kept, small inconveniences she didn't concede. Her long hair for one, and impossible brown-black length that cascaded beautifully all the way to her lower back with the ends tied with a small red band; she knew she should cut it, but if she did she felt like she would change as a person too. Be someone she couldn't recognize, make a thousand compromises until she wasn't even Tifa anymore.

But that seemed stupid now, she's already at the point that she was drinking out of a toilet.

Oh god, bathroom philosophy. She rolled her eyes at herself.

She'd ignore the actual bowl, give herself that, and instead reached to the back of the toilet and lifted the cover from the tank. She poured as much water into the pot as she could before returning to the room where Kain and Lightning were discussing their current plan to go through the tunnels.

"I'm boiling this first," she announced.

"Don't take too long," Lightning was always business, then turned back to Kain, "this place actually has its own generator. They left it here in the panic I guess; it has extra gas and everything."

"That could be useful," Kain said with a frown in this voice (it's amazing that Tifa knew them for less than twenty four hours and she could already pick up the nuances in their tones), "but I don't think we could carry that around for too long. Maybe if we had a car."

"There's no way we can drive on the streets," Lightning stated the obvious, "any inch that isn't already covered by broken cars is covered in nails and debris. We'd never get anywhere."

God a car would be heavenly, Tifa pined in her head as she began to scrounge around for paper, or books, or anything slightly burnable.

"Which leaves us with; we can't just carry it around. Unless you're planning on bunkering down…"

"Not until I find Serah."

"Then we leave it."

"It's just a godamn waste."

Tifa mentally agreed, taking out her lighter and setting the small pile of paper on fire. It didn't burn hot enough to put the pot on, so she began to dig pages out of the books she found.

She looked at the old leatherbound book, it was well loved back in its day, the pages were soft from being read plenty but there were no earmarks or other dents, and the gold words HAMLET were proudly embedded in the brown.

She turned to Lightning and Kain holding up the book and recited her best high school Shakespeare,

"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow creeps at this petty pace."

This time she _knew_ Kain was sending her a look, "You're quoting Macbeth, not Hamlet."

Tifa shrugged. She'd never been much of a literature person anyway.

"We're all just dead bastards now anyway," and tossed the ripped pages into the fire.

-x-

They must have been jogging for hours, because by the time Tifa could see the river in the distance, the sun was sinking below the horizon of broken buildings. There was a feeling of desperation in their movements, they all wanted to cross the tunnels before that light entirely extinguished.

Without breaking his momentum, Kain took his metal pole to the face of the manikin in his way, bits of teeth and skull smeared on it, and Kain was well past him before the body even hit the floor.

"Do you see something wrong with this picture?" Tifa asked Lightning setting her pace next to her.

"You mean besides that there are fewer manikins around?"

"Yeah, besides that."

A grim look settled on Lightning's face, "None of the cars have tires, most of them have their hood up and doors opened. This place has been completely stripped."

"Right."

Lightning called out to Kain, but he'd already caught on without any assistance. He dug in his own bag and then faced Tifa and Lightning with occupied hands.

"You guys had guns?" Tifa asked and Kain each of them one.

"Of course, though we try not to use it. We want to conserve ammo and not attract attention, but if we are going into a place like a tunnel blind with an organized unknown element, I want us armed. Can you shoot?"

"I can point and the pull a trigger," Tifa said, "but don't expect anything fancy. I'm better at hand to hand."

Lightning leaned towards Tifa and put her hand on the gun, "This is a 9 millimeter and it'll shoot ten bullets before you need to change clips. Put one hand at the bottom, it'll help steady your aim. If your gun jams, just pull back the top."

She moved her fingers to a switch on the side, "The safety is next to your thumb," she clicked it, "on," again, "off. This lower button that will eject the clip. Remember there's a bullet in the chamber right now, and don't aim at any of us."

"If this is supposed to comfort me, it's not working," Tifa said. She'd just much rather punch something but Lightning wouldn't take that for an answer.

"I don't need you to be comfortable, I just you need to be a good shot," and they begin to march forward again.

The dark was settling around them at an unreasonable rate, and nervousness began to prickle at Tifa's arms and make jelly out of her legs. Manikins were terrifying in their own right, they were subhuman and mad and would tear you apart the first chance. But she always knew what to expect from manikins. People were a wildcard, she struck lucky with Lightning and Kain (and Yuna, don't already forget her) but she's also seen the worst as well. That look in Lightning's eyes said they had too.

"Let's do this quickly as possible."

A sound from behind one the cars forcefully grabbed Tifa's attention. It was probably nothing, just wind passing through, but she would be a wreck if she didn't check it out herself.

She walked on eggshells towards the red sports car, the kind of car most people swooned for if it wasn't for the massive chunk of building that crumbled the top as if it were aluminum paper. She circled it seeing nothing, and then glanced at open hood.

Yes, someone had definitely taken its parts; the battery had been screwed out. She was no expert, but she knew just a little bit more about cars than she did guns, thanks to Cloud's influence as an auto mechanic.

She relaxed her stance and let the gun drop to her side as she peered in, a good number of the places she's been to were scavenged, but this was thorough and methodical.

Tifa felt a ghost of a touch on her gun hand, so slight she almost didn't notice it until the gun had already been snatched away.

"_Oh shit,"_ she hissed as she saw the offender darting away. Tifa responded with a roundhouse kick to his head, but was surprised when he dodged it with deft easy, ducking backwards then rolling on his back, over his shoulder, and was to his feet again before Tifa's foot crashed into the side of the car. The man whistled, apparently impressed.

Tifa heard Kain and Lightning ready their gun.

"Get the fuck away from her or I put a bullet through your fucking brain," Lightning shouted.

"Hey guys, woah there," suddenly the man stopped, raising his hands in amicable surrender, "I'm not interested in fighting."

"Then why did you steal my gun?" Tifa demanded.

"It's how I say hi to pretty ladies?" he flashed her a winning smile and Tifa's jaw dropped disbelievingly. Was he flirting? With two guns trained on him?

Well, whoever he was, he wasn't ugly, though definitely not Tifa's type- and not just because he was really short. He was lively, which was strange all things considered, easy smiles that crept all the way to his eyes and blond hair pulled to a ponytail. She preferred perpetually brooding and rampant depression.

Right, she drove that miserable thought out of her head.

"Who the hell are you?" Lightning's face was every inch-unconvinced.

"Zidane Tribal, but pretty girls like you, miss, can call me whatever you want."

"Let's shoot the idiot and move on."

"That wouldn't be the greatest of ideas," Zidane said scratching the back of his head, "You're kind of in our territory right now."

The first thing that popped in Tifa's head is; why are people were scoping out real estate now? The second was that he said "our" which meant more people were lurking somewhere. Lightning and Kain didn't react, but Kain shifted ever so slightly telling Tifa he was thinking the same thing.

"What do you mean your territory?"

"The tunnels," Zidane pointed to, "We control the area. I'm assuming you want to cross."

"And if we do?"

"That's fine."

Tifa's brow shot up, "Just like that?"

"Well, not unless you are murders, psychos, manikins, or thugs," Zidane said, "We have a strict policy on those. And the guns."

"We aren't giving them to you," Lightning said still suspicious but dropping her aim none the less.

"We don't want them. But no drawn guns in the tunnels," he said twirling Tifa's gun in his hand, "put them away or you don't cross."

"What if we don't trust you?" Lightning said.

"Then stay here, but you aren't getting in."

A slow minute that drawled by before Lightning cursed and handed the gun to Kain to put away. Zidane tossed Tifa's gun to him as well, and received a dirty glare from Lightning.

"The safety was on," he nonchalantly waved off the murderous glower and Tifa found herself relaxing despite herself. Zidane seemed so at ease with everything she found it hard not to unwind.

"That's it?"

"Well, I'd like your names too," he said suggestively towards Lightning and that frown in her face etched deeper. She was surprised Zidane wasn't cowering under her expression.

"Tifa."

"Lightning."

"Kain."

"That wasn't so bad, right? I'll show you the way," he said and took off with the three of them exchanging glances before following him.

The closer they got to the tunnels, the more it was obvious that this place was manned. There were crude barricades of wood and plaster, and even car pile ups. It must have taken a lot of time. There were even strange contraptions hanging from the areas, maybe to catch rain water or something.

Zidane let out a familiar whistle, and Tifa wondered where she heard it before, maybe from a television show. Either way it looked to be a call to warn people in the tunnel.

"Down the rabbit hole," he said merrily, "Ladies first."

It was a cave, a monster hole burrowing deep into the cement, and it looked even more ominous at night while it sloped into the darkness. A large warning painted on one of the old street signs read "Trespassers will be shot" in neat, even white letters- large enough to see at a distance. Below it was a lazier scrawl, "or mildly chastised" but it was crossed out by the same white paint as the sign before, in wide, annoyed slashes.

It was damp- like the tunnel itself was sweating, six lanes wide with worker's sidewalks- but it still felt cramped. It was dim but Christmas lights tangled their way down the halls and Tifa realized that they had their own generator. There were other makeshift platforms, doors, and floors, along with some other doors that were normally there, probably workers stations.

"This is pretty remarkable," Tifa couldn't help but admit, "Were you in construction or something?"

"Theater actor," he said quite proud, "I'd like to think I was Shakespeare in a former life. You like Shakespeare?"

"I burned Hamlet on my way here."

"Terrible," Zidane said dead serious, "This is what the world has come to; burning Hamlet."

"What's this?" Lightning looked on curiously. A section of the tunnel was completely covered with maps, it draped over the walls and over some makeshift tables made out of crates. And on every map there were scribbles of ink with of every color. Numbers, words, all of it looked like code and was complete gibberish to her.

"It's how we keep track out the outside here," Zidane said, "everyone who passes through tells us where they were, what it was like, if there were a lot of manikins. And then we go and pass that information on to everyone else."

"And you do this for what? The kindness of your heart?" Lightning asked, she sounded skeptical but walked to the maps none of the less.

"You don't need a reason to help people."

"What do the red circles mean?" Kain said finally speaking up. Tifa looked in Kain's direction, that particular map had red circles drawn furiously around, along with some names like "Emperor" and "Cloud of Darkness."

"Warlord territories," Zidane said with a hint of disgust, "They take control of certain areas and make the rules there. Kind of like us, but without the good looks and the being nice thing. Most of them are downright psychos and gun down more people than manikins. You're lucky if you haven't met them yet."

"Luck, yeah. I seem to have a lot of that."

"So let's get down to business," Zidane said, "information tax. Where were you guys from, and don't skimp the details."

Despite any previous resignations Lightning spoke up, "Kain and I met up around here," she pointed to Bodhum Square, and then her finger trailed further, "Before that I was at the Zozo apartments. Went to Balamb University. Not much to say, the city from what I've seen is pretty uniformly destroyed. Shops are pillaged, and manikins are everywhere."

"It's the same with Bhujerba airport," Kain said, "There were a few flyable planes left, but they took off and never came back. There was a group of survivors living there once but now is anyone's guess."

Ah, Tifa thought, he left his own group of survivors. She wondered why.

"I'm actually originally from across the river, I came through before all of this," she motioned around the tunnels.

"Then you came pretty early," Zidane said, "there's been fighting over this spot for awhile."

"Very early," Tifa agreed, "But after that I was around here." Her finger lingered around Shinra Academy and unwanted emotions began to churn below the surface. On the map, it looked like someone had taken a purple marker and shaded that particular area.

"Oh crap," Zidane said, "Were you there when…"

Tifa's head turned, "You know about that?"

"We've had survivors some up here. I heard that entire section has gone to hell."

"We'll it's as bad as you heard and worse."

Zidane eyes lit up with a sudden epiphany. "Come on then," he said grabbing Tifa's hand, "You'd be better at convincing him than we can."

"Convince who?"

Zidane led her further down the tunnels, leaving Kain and Lightning to go over the maps, "Some idiot is absolutely dead set on getting down to that area no matter what we tell him. I'd rather not just allow people go on some stupid suicide mission- _Hey Squall_!"

Zidane's voice alerted a young man's attention. Squall was strikingly handsome, despite a nasty scar between his eyes and a long suffering look that blatantly stretched across on his face. He had been standing across from a blond, and noticeably impassioned man, who was in mid gesture and looked very determined about something.

"This is Tifa," he introduced, "she's from around _that_ area."

"I don't care," said the blond man furiously, "I'm not changing my mind. I'm going to Saint Yevon Hospital and I don't need anyone's permission to do it."

"_Wait._" Blond hair, tan skin, and he wore a sports jacket with faded ZANARKAND ABES logo.

"Tidus!"

* * *

**Author's Note:** Sorry for the delay, as I had some family issues, good ones, and didn't have the time to clean this chapter up until now. That and I'm about halfway Chapter 7 and for some reason it's really kicking my ass, I just can't seem to write it.

As far as technical things go, there are a few chapters like this one when there will be an occasional flashback to a companion, I find them the most fun to write. And the incident Tifa talks about Shinra Academy will eventually be fleshed out, but it's not terribly important. This chapter turned out to be weirdly lighthearted, I hadn't meant it to be that way but knowing that I was writing Zidane, it just flowed naturally, I'm very fond of that character and I think he's kind of a show stealer.

I never got the impression that Kain is a huge literary buff but I sort of convinced myself that hey, Kain is old times, Shakespeare is old times, that's like the same thing, right? Right. So that's my thought process of him being the kind of person who corrects people in Hamlet. I'll be honest, I couldn't enjoy his stuff for the most part, a fact that horrifies my dad and brother, and they'll occasionally quote his plays to get at me. Which is where the "tomorrow" stuff comes from. Maybe I'm a heathen, I dunno.

Someone once told me that the water in the tanks of toilets are actually good to drink as they are the same as water in the sinks. I don't remember how that conversation came around but I still remember it, partly being grossed out at the thought of thinking toilet water.


	4. Chapter 3: One Good Deed

_Days After_

Chapter 3: One Good Deed

"Do I know you?"

"Do you know him?"

Both questions came at the same time and Tifa just shook your head. Then Tidus's face split into a grin.

"See I told you I was famous. Star player of the Zanarkand Abes," Tidus pointed to himself for emphasis while he leaned towards Squall.

Squall's face looked like he just bit into something sour, and then he called over to Zidane, "You deal with this moron," and walked away holding his head.

"Nice guy," sarcasm dripping from Tidus's words then he turned to Tifa, "Sorry miss, but I don't have a pen for signatures and I gave my last signed blitz ball to these guys."

"I'm not a fan," she said a little too forcefully for Tidus's ego before quickly adding, "I know Yuna."

Tidus simultaneously choked on air and tripped over his own feet, but managed to recover quickly.

"_What!?"_ he grabbed her shoulders so hard that it actually hurt, his eyes wide with hope, "Is she here?"

"We went different ways yesterday," and watched Tidus physically deflate.

"Shit," he ran his hand through his sandy blond hair, "Was she okay at least? Was she hurt? Is she scared? Did it look like she was getting enough to eat?"

Tifa tried to wade through the barrage of questions, "She seemed fine to me but I only met her for a short while. Kain and Lightni- the people I'm with, they were traveling with her before I met them." She pointed to where Kain and Lightning were and Tidus bolted like the devil was on his tail.

Zidane just looked confused, "What's going on there?"

"Irony. Bad luck of the century. Either or both," Tifa said, the pity in her voice spreading, "Kain and Lightning were traveling with a woman named Yuna just yesterday but split up when she wanted to go to Saint Yevon hospital to find Tidus. We came here and found him instead. Looks like he was looking for her too."

"That's rough."

Tifa thought about the time she had found Cloud just in time for him to have lost himself, she thought of what happened at Shinra Academy, and yeah. That was rough.

Tifa went to follow after Tidus and saw Lightning and Kain being bombarded by the increasingly erratic blond. She couldn't make out the words but she could hear his volume raising and his arm gestures were becoming more sweeping and frantic.

Lightning looked from him and then to Tifa's approaching form with a look that said, "_This is Tidus?_"

Tidus stopped to take a breath and then faced Tifa and Zidane.

"I'm going to find her." There was no hesitation in his voice, his shoulders were square, and his eyes were set and determined. _Just like Yuna's was._

Lightning turned back towards the maps uninterested, "I would think the safest way to Midgar Street would be cutting through the par-"

"You're not coming?" Tidus interrupted. Lightning spared a glance at Tidus before wordlessly returning to plotting their way.

"Fuck that, you're coming," he demanded and this time Lightning spun around, pissed to the heavens.

"What did you just say?" she was obviously not happy to be told what to do and Tifa edged closer to Lightning, hoping to calm her down if need be.

"I think you need to sit the fuck down, listen to what I have to say, and take responsibility for the people you were with," Tidus shot back and somehow not withering into nothingness at the intensity of Lightning's glare.

"Listen _boy_, you don't know who the hell I am and just how little I care about anything you have to say, but I'll be happy to beat it in you. She decided to go on her own-"

"I may not know you, but I know Yuna," he pointed to Tifa's bandaged leg, "I bet that's Yuna. She helped her didn't she, because that's the kind of person she is. And I bet she helped you too," he put that finger in Lightning's face and Tifa was terrified for a second she would break it off, "She always stuck her neck out for people, she was always healing them. She wouldn't have thought twice about coming to save you."

A horrible wave of guilt washed over Tifa; knowing Lightning and Kain better she could only guess that it was Yuna that decided to save her. Hadn't Tifa just thought about how she wanted to remain herself despite this mess, and how she worried about cutting her hair- that was just stupid hair. The old Tifa would have done it, gone with Yuna, that's the kind of person she wanted back.

"I'm going too."

Tidus looked extremely grateful but Lightning's face went even a shade darker, "Midgar Street was _your_ idea, Tifa. And now you're just going to walk away from it, from your goal?"

"I know, and I'm really sorry," Tifa's eyes met Lightning's and held it, "But Tidus is right. I can't walk away from someone who helped me."

"I'm going too. I was a fool to walk away from my debts," Kain interjected and both Tidus and Tifa looked surprised.

Lightning stopped, like she had no idea what to do next, then growled, "Fine. I'll do it on my own."

"Lightning…" Tifa started softly, but Lightning was already in furious a walk.

"Right, let's go!" Tidus pumped his arms in the air, ready to charge forward and save the princess before Kain put a hand on his shoulder.

"No."

"But you just said-"

"Moving in the night is foolish; it'll just leave us more vulnerable or become lost just trying to get to Yuna."

"I'm not wasting time sitting on my ass-"

"Tifa and I spent the entire day running here," Kain was immovable, "you told us to be responsible, you need to think about doing it yourself as well."

Tidus was obviously flustered, but he was calm enough to listen to reason.

"We'll find her, but not if we pass out just trying to get there."

"Crap. Fine. But we leave early," Tidus said before slumping to the ground.

"Well that was fun," Zidane said scratching the back of his head (Tifa jumped a little, she forgot he was there), "I guess you're staying here for the night."

"Sorry for the intrusion," Tifa said, even if the apology was a little late.

"Never a problem for a woman like you," he said casually, "just don't expect it to be comfortable."

"Thank you. For everything," Zidane beamed at that, people probably forgot how to say thanks nowadays.

"I should find Lightning before she burns down the place though," Tifa said.

"No problem, follow me. She couldn't have gone far."

He took her deeper into the tunnel, the entire length was cut into compartments- each probably serving its own purpose but much of it was hidden from the main section they were walking down with curtains and walls made out of scavenged wood. She could guess there probably had guns, food, anything else that was a good idea to horde. Past that was what looked like a makeshift shower system. They did have no problem with water access, Tifa mused, they could afford a shower or two.

Tifa probably smelled like a dead dog. She shifted self-consciously.

"Oi," Tifa saw Squall with another, tall, wiry young man with light brown hair, "Squall. Bartz. Looks like we are having a slumber party."

Squall's expressions could give Lightning's a run for its money, Tifa thought.

"Only for the night," Zidane tried to smooth it over, "Then they are all headed their way to Saint Yevon."

"Didn't I tell you to convince Tidus not to go? And now they are all going?" Squall eyebrow twitched, "that's pretty much the exact opposite of what I told you what to do."

"Extenuating circumstances," Zidane shrugged, "Did you see a pink haired girl walk by here."

"Yeah, she seemed real happy about life too," said the other one (Bartz Zidane called him), then he looked past Zidane at Tifa, cheerfully raising a hand in a greeting, "Heya."

Tifa returned it, and then looked around the room. It was probably the closest thing to their command center, papers of blueprints littered the room, the generator buzzed loudly in the distance, and at the center a table with three chairs…

Wait, just three chairs?

"Are you three the only people running this place?" Tifa's eyes were wide.

"Figured it out?" Bartz laughed without any sense of shame, "Yeah, only three of us defending this place. It's not as hard as you would think, though. The entrances are like a choke point, we know exactly where anyone would come from so no surprises."

"You seriously want to tell every stranger that walks into this place our secrets?" Squall deadpanned, but Bartz was too busy not paying attention to him to care. Tifa got the distinct impression that trouble just seemed to roll off him.

"We use to be six," Zidane said a little more somber, "Us, chain-smoking-Cid, ridiculous-beard-Cid, and overly-regal-Cid. Those were the engineers; they practically built the place themselves."

Tifa looked at him questioningly and Zidane replied, "There's apparently an abundance of engineers named Cid in the city."

"What happened?"

"One left to find somebody. Another died before we could really bunker down and get the place ready. The other is the reason why we instituted the no psychos and no drawn guns rule."

"Sorry," she seemed to be saying that a lot.

"They died fighting to keep this place free," Zidane said, "Before us, a warlord who decided to name himself Ex-Death wanted this place. He was as bad as they come, and if he had gotten it, the city would be effectively cut in half with the only way to travel in the hands of a crazy man."

Realization dawned on her, "That's why you're here?"

"A lot of things happened since whatever ended the world," the flirt and jokester dropped from his face, "It's just one of those things, you know. Do your best to remember what they died for, be a better man for it."

_It's that hard everywhere, isn't it? Even if it looks safe in here._

A crunch of footsteps turned Tifa's attention, Lightning wandered back and Tifa wondered if she had heard everything. "The water back there," she said, and Tifa guessed she was making a point to ignore her.

"Ah, resource management," Bartz said stretching, "that would be me."

Remembering that she came to talk to Lightning, Tifa trailed behind the two, but when she looked back at Squall and Zidane she saw Squall's eyes linger at Lightning's back a little longer than necessary. _Weird. _

Eventually the three reached the next "room," and this particular part of the tunnel was sectioned off especially carefully. Wooden beams separated half the lanes, and on the other side were containers and barrels covering nearly every inch of the road.

"All water."

Each barrel was filled to the brim with water. Had this been two weeks earlier this wouldn't have even fazed Tifa, but a few hours ago she was scooping water out of a _toilet_. This may as well have been paradise.

"What's this?" it looked like a large water cooler filled with dirt.

"Layered sand, gravel, and charcoal," Bartz said tapping it, "It's a filtration system for the water. It's crude but it does the job."

"And that works?"

"Hey trust me. I was a scout leader. We know everything."

"You probably have a monopoly on water in the entire city," Lightning said, "Do you give out any?"

"Whenever survivors pass through here we give them enough to survive," Bartz said, "But anything more you have to trade."

"That's how you can survive here? Smart, people always need water."

"We're not particularly picky on what we need but every little bit helps. We also do have some help now and then from city runners," Bartz said, and left Tifa to imagine what city runners was slang for. Probably exactly what it sounded like.

Lightning dug through her bag and pulled out some batteries, "What about these? Could you trade them for extra water?"

"Are they charged?" he asked as she handed them to him.

"They should work, but they aren't fully charged. Probably," she told him.

"Always could use more batteries. I recently found a Mozart on tape, but for the life up me I couldn't find any spare AA's."

Tifa didn't know what she should be more surprised by, that Bartz listened to Mozart or that people still had tape players.

"I know what you're thinking and I'll have you know I'm a piano player."

"Really?"

"Well, a work in progress. I still haven't convinced Squall that a piano would be a good addition. Speaking of which, he'll probably want to check this," he tossed the batteries in the air and caught them again, walking away.

Once he was out of earshot Tifa turned to Lightning, "So how angry are you at me?"

"I don't let myself become clouded with emotions like that. If I did, I'd be dead already. I'm not angry, I'm focusing on surviving."

"That's bullshit," Lightning looked surprised at Tifa's bluntness, "If it was just about surviving you would have let me die back there in that store. If you didn't have anymore emotions, you wouldn't be looking for your sister."

"This and that aren't the same things. And anyway, yesterday you and Kain didn't even entertain the idea of going to Saint Yevon and now this is your crusade? What are you even trying to do with this suicide mission?"

"The right thing."

"Half of the people in this city are a bloodsplatter on the wall. The other half are the real unlucky bastards; manikins, psychotics, the starving. And then there's us. This world has gone to hell, and there's no one out that's going to help you and me. Tifa, there is no right thing anymore."

"Really? Because the people here are helping us and trying to do the right thing," Tifa retorted and the way Lightning was silent Tifa knew she had overheard Zidane and the others, "I'm not saying it'll be easy and I'm not even saying I'll survive it. But I've seen enough of the wrong thing to know there _has_ to be a different way. You've seen it too."

"I'm not interested in your nativity or your friendship speeches. I'm leaving at sunrise," Lightning's face hardened. Tifa's in turn softened, and she took a moment to just _contemplate_ Lightning.

"You need to take this moment and look at yourself. Really look at yourself. Are you going to let the worst of this world define you?"

Lightning didn't respond so Tifa walked away.

Tifa swore that the air in the tunnels was so recycled it turned sour, a thin layer of soggy grime covered every inch of the walls to the extent that it was impossible for it not to eventually cling to you, and even with the Christmas lights it's just dim enough to cause everyone to squint and strain your eyes. That said, Tifa had the best sleep she's ever had because for the first in a long time, she felt safe.

She'd taken the feeling for granted. She of course, missed daily showers with water pitter patting on her skin, soft carpet underneath her feet, air conditioning on a hot day, and warm baked cookies. But that feeling of safe was something so all encompassing, it was like every one of those memories enveloping her body in a dream. She even felt well rested.

"Everyone ready?" Tidus asked, and Tifa knew he was barely containing himself from sprinting out full speed.

The sun hadn't quote come up yet and running with only the bare minimum of light was never safe, but they needed the extra time.

Yuna might be the kind of woman that faced down impossible odds, but she wasn't stupid. If she was by herself she would be traveling slowly, trying to avoid as many manikins as possible. She was slower than the rest in general, being less of a fighter and more of a healer (though Kain assured Tidus that she could take care of herself).

Still, she had two days' worth of travel as a head start, one if they were lucky and she followed Tifa's advice to stay low for a day. They'd need every minute they could get.

Tifa shifted the straps of her backpack over her shoulders, Kain was checking his weapons, and Tidus had been ready for an hour and was now practically buzzing with his need to leave. Zidane and Squall came along with them to the entrance to show them out.

"I need a second," came a new voice, and Lightning came in tow. Tidus beamed like the sunrise and Lightning had a clear "don't push it" look on her face.

"I never finished exploring the area," Lightning said a bold faced excuse that fooled no one; "I might be able to find my sister back there."

"Serah," Squall's said and Lightning's head did an exorcist around her neck.

"You know Serah?" Lightning seemed calm and reserved, but her eyes begged like a man dying of thirst.

"If she had the same hair as you, then sort of. We were in college course together when… everything happened."

_Ah, that was why he had been staring at Lightning_.

"Did she make it out?"

"I'm sorry," Squall said with a perfect poker face, like he was apologizing for bumping into them rather than telling Lightning that her sister was dead. There was a long, drawn out silence that threatened to go on forever.

"Did you see her?"

"I-"

"Did you see her die?" she asked again, short and aggressive.

"No, but it was bad. It's hard to imagine a scenario where a lot of people survived."

"You did."

Squall paused, and then said, "You're right."

Lightning looked away and said to no one in particular, "People are always underestimating her because she's small. But she's a fighter, just as much as anyone here. If anyone survived, then she probably could too."

Lightning said it in the same tone Lightning always would speak in, but Tifa thought she heard just the tiniest, smallest fracture in her voice.

"One last thing," Zidane and Tidus groaned at the thought of spending another second not moving.

Zidane rolled out a map from the tunnels and pointed at a particular area on the way with a red circle and the word "Kuja" written next to it.

"Warlord, right?" Tifa recalled the conversation about the maps.

"Yeah, but if you're looking for the fastest route to the hospital, this would be it. He actually runs the trolley old system."

"That's all well and good, but there's no energy in the city and the roads are completely blocked with debris," Kain said.

"Yeah, don't ask me how, but if he wanted it to work, he would get it working," Zidane said, Tifa sensed a history but kept her mouth shut. If he was circled as a warlord then it's probably not something he wanted to remember.

"Why didn't you just say that sooner?" Tidus said frustrated; frustrated that they didn't already leave, frustrated that they weren't running mach speed to Yuna, frustrated that the sun was rising faster.

"He's… it's worth trying but don't expect something definite from him," yeah, definitely a lot of history.

"Fine, try it, don't worry too much about it, is there anything else? Yes? No? Then let's go," and Tidus took off. Lightning rolled her eyes and Kain said nothing as he followed the two.

"Thank you for everything," Tifa said, bowing her head with sincerity.

"Move it or lose it, Tifa!" Tidus shouted behind him.

"You should go before Tidus has a hernia," Zidane said shrugging and Tifa jogged away.

"You see that Lightning- you came to help me and you get information about your family," Tidus said a bit too smugly, "It's karma. Do the right thing and someone pays it back."

Lightning was ignoring him at that point, and Tidus began obliviously whistling, but Tifa let the words sink in. She only hoped that karma remembered her when she's looking for Cloud too.

-x-

The manikins spotted Tifa, she knew even with her back to them because their slow shuffling had hesitated for a second, a miserable drawl escaped its lips. Their shivering footsteps started to rumble closer to her, and the closer they were to, her the faster they began to sprint. Desperate arms reaching and reaching, ready to strangle and bash the life out of her.

As they dashed toward her, Kain stepped from out the side of a car and took his metal rod to the back of the manikin, its head matter splattered in the air. The second manikin swirled around and screamed in a rage no one could understand. This time it was Tidus that came from behind and with little trouble sliced halfway through its neck. It curdled and tried to screech something, but instead it blood gushed from the wound and the manikin thrashed its arms towards him until Tidus put the machete through its skull.

Tifa was surprised at how capable the hyperactive Tidus was at handling manikins, although she really shouldn't be. If anyone survived for this long then it probably meant they had a talent for these things. She wondered if him being a Zanarkan Abe's player (as he constantly reminded them) let him be so agile.

"Is that all of them?" Tidus asked to the top of an abandoned freezer truck. Lightning appeared from the spot, and then backflipped gracefully off with a perfect landing (show off, Tidus muttered).

"No but from what I could see the rest of them shouldn't be a problem; they're far enough away that it would probably just be a waste of time getting them."

Her eyes strayed to the sky. Even as the day progressed it didn't become much brighter out, dark clouds rolled lazily over the muddy sky, fat with omen. It was making everyone nervous.

"_The humidity yesterday was probably a warning of an incoming storm_," Tifa thought. And the only thing she could think is that she really, really didn't want to be caught out in a rainstorm. She could barely get by without her clothes being soaked and catching a fever. It hadn't rained since the incident, and one more unplanned variable was not something they wanted as they drove closer to Saint Yevon Hospital.

"How far is it until the station?" Kain asked whipping his weapon quickly to shake off the pieces of manikin brain. Tidus yelped and jumped back to avoid the spray.

"Where are we? Ivalice Avenue?" Lightning asked, "We'd have to change a route just a bit, but it would take another hour if everything goes right. Which it probably won't if the sky is any indication."

"We'll just to plan with that in mind," Tifa said. To be honest, casting her bets with a maybe-insane warlord was something she had rather avoid, but if it was between that and traveling through a promised thunderstorm- the former option was looking more and more attractive.

"The map said there was a grocery store on the way there that's not too far," and Tifa wondered if Lightning memorized the entire map before she came. It was entirely possible.

"We don't need to take a shopping trip," Tidus said frowning.

"No but we probably need to find something to wear out in the rain. And maybe pick up some food if there is any left," Lightning said, "Calm down, if this tram thing works we'll have plenty of time. And Yuna might not even try to traveling in the rain so we'll make good time."

Tidus didn't look consoled but the frown let up a little.

Lightning was right; it had only been ten minutes until they saw a sign with the words "Chocobolina's Fresh Foods" in cheery letters hung on a rather sizable store in a shopping outlet. The shopping outlet was one large building connecting multiple store, but Chocobolina's Fresh Foods seemed the only one that wasn't broken down into itself.

"Stay sharp," Lightning said unnecessarily, they all knew that large stores invited all kinds of trouble. They crouched behind the cars in the parking lot as they made their way to the store, Tidus in the lead with Kain keeping a look out at the back, guided partially be Tifa.

There were a few manikins that needed to be dealt with as they wandered aimlessly between the parking spaces. Lightning went to get the manikin at the doors, Tidus ducked under a truck to get a manikin from the other side.

Tifa spotted, one in a bright blue dress that stared through a car door, one hand was carrying a part of a doll's arm, the other knocking relentlessly on the glass as if it was trying to get somebody's attention.

Tifa motioned to Kain that she would deal with the manikin and Kain nodded, going to support Lightning since she would be the most exposed.

Tifa crept up to the manikin, the dress looked even brighter close up, and wrapped her arms around its head, abruptly jerking it at an impossible angle and snapping its neck with a terrible crack. When it died it dropped the doll's arm and… oh.

It wasn't a dolls hand, it was a real infants. How did she miss the blood? Tifa looked away, she felt a burning in her stomach that wanted to throw up the small can of cold soup she had for breakfast. "_Move on, Tifa_," she told herself because she'd seen worse, and most likely will continue to.

She met up with Kain, Tidus, and Lightning at the large glass doors of the entrance. The glass was broken, Tifa realized, its shattered remains glittered the floor and trailed into the building, like someone rolled out the welcoming carpet for them. But what made Tifa anxious were the steel shutters that were supposed to be pulled behind the doors. Someone had rolled them down earlier, probably in hopes that it would keep them safe, but it had caved in from an unknown force, torn down and mangled.

"Maybe we shouldn't…"

"It's a bit late to walk away now," Lightning said drawing out her dagger, "We'll go in quietly, keep our exit clear, take what we can, and if it's too much, we get the hell out. With any luck they're gone. If there were still a lot of manikins lingering, there would have been more in the parkinglot."

"_Still feels like a bad idea_," but Tifa kept quiet as Lightning went in first, then Kain, the Tidus. Tifa looked back and confident that no manikins had spotted them, she followed after them.

There were piles of boxes, drawers, chairs, and everything but a kitchen sink scattered in a heap near the entrance.

"_Whoever was here tried to barricade the door_," she thought. It failed.

Blood swirled and stained the floor in random abstract and reached the walls, and dear gods in some cases splattered the ceiling. It was _everywhere_ in amounts that Tifa didn't think were possible, but it must have been awhile since the blood long since dried and even looked as if it were fading, like old paint on the wall.

"Right," Lightning simply said.

She wondered where the bodies were, the blood and the clothes, _and some of the limbs_, were still there, but the majority of the remains were nowhere to be seen. That wasn't new; manikins always did weird things to the bodies anyway.

The manikins themselves seemed to be mostly gone, leaving the store hauntingly hollow. The entire area was unsettling, it reeked of death and decay from every corner and it was unnervingly silent, and in its emptiness everything echoed a thousand times louder.

Tifa immediately found the canned food area and began loading in as much as she could. The fruit and meat were all rotten and smelled something dreadful, but some of the other perishable foods like the bread were still good. She ripped a package open and offered some to the people around her. She wasn't in a terribly hungry mood after the scene but she knew better than to pass it up.

The frustrating thing about being constantly on the move was that they could never carry as much as they wanted. It once took Tifa an hour to sort out what the smartest, most efficient arrangements to carry would be, but they really didn't have an hour.

She searched through the different items, from the food, to the kitchen utensils, but she noticed with a twinge of disappointment that there was no medicine, not even a single bottle of tylenol. It seemed logical that those were among the first things that were picked clean, but remembering how bad her leg felt after the manikin attack- it would be nice to have some painkillers on hand.

"Oh hey," Tidus said picking up an umbrella thoughtfully before twirling it in some whimsical fashion, "might be useful if it storms. Not sure if I'd want to trade a weapon arm for it though."

He gave it an experimental jab in Kain's direction, "maybe if I attach something sharp on it. Like a knife or something, make it a weapon. I could be like the Penguin. What do you think, Kain?" he jabbed it in his direction again.

"A penguin?"

Tidus' jaw dropped dramatically, "Are you kidding? Penguin! You know, from Batman, the best comic book hero ever. Tell me you know who Batman is."

When Kain didn't answer, Tidus turned to Tifa for validation, "How does Kain not know who Batman is? Has he been living under a rock?"

"He knows Hamlet," Tifa offered, "He's probably just an old soul."

"He knows Hamlet but he doesn't know Batman. That's not old soul, that's Medieval."

"Shakespeare is Renaissance," Kain corrected.

"You know when Hamlet is written but you don't know Batman," Tidus amended, "You're Stone Age." He sighed and tossed the umbrella to the side, "Batman would know what to do in this situation."

"This conversation is stupid," Lightning snorted and then tore up a package of trash bags, "This will be enough for the rain. We'll cut holes for the head and arms and just wear it over our clothes. It'll have to do."

"What about our heads," Tidus lovingly patted his hair.

"Get a hat."

Tidus turned back to whistling while scavenging when Tifa noticed Lightning stiffen.

"Lightn-"

But the woman put a finger up to silence her, and it shut Tifa right up. The images of blood trails and the broken doors suddenly came rushing back to her, giving her goosebumps up and down her arms.

In almost a predatory fashion, Lightning flashed to the edge of their aisle- stealthily positioning herself just near enough to the edge to catch a glimpse of "it" without being seen.

Tidus and Kain caught on and instantly became serious, (well Kain was always serious). Lightning signaled them to move to the opposite end of the aisle, and Tifa fell in place next to Lightning. The two men went without question.

Tifa could hear what caught Lightning's attention now, it was the fast pattering of feet, pausing occasionally, and then moving on again.

Lightning held up her hand, and everyone took positions. After one, very long second she motioned toward Kain and Tidus, and they moved into the aisle with a sharp turn. Whatever that was there was obviously shocked, something plastic clanged on the floor and scattered (food container? So it's not a manikin).

The footsteps dashed away towards Lightning and Tifa, becoming louder until it was close to their end of the aisle, Lightning popped out, seizing the offender by the neck and pushing it to the ground with dagger raised high-

_"_A kid._"_

Tifa grabbed Lightning's raised arm, but from the look on Lightning's face she doubted she would have really stabbed him.

He couldn't have been much older than Marlene or Denzel, around ten, he had large boyish eyes and baby fat still on his face. He wore a bicycle helmet that seemed too big for him, and it would have looked completely silly except it had been stained with blood or guts, or both.

Lightning's initial shock wore off as quickly as it came, "You were stalking us the entire time here."

"I thought you might have been manikins," he said and he sounded so _young_, "if not, then I wanted to make sure you weren't a psycho. But I guess you are."

Tifa squeezed Lightning's arm gently to persuade her to put down her weapon and Lightning did. She withdrew her hand from his neck but it didn't completely let him go, it lingered past his shoulders and clamped down on his shirt as he got up.

"Crap, it's just a baby," they heard Tidus say and the young bow scowled.

"I'm not a baby. I lasted here just as long as you guys did," he said.

"You're a baby," Tidus repeated.

"You're an idiot."

Lightning looked between the two, "I think I like the kid a little better."

"Don't patronize me," the boy sulked.

Tifa kneeled down to his eye level, "Listen, you're obviously a smart guy. We don't want any trouble here. But why are you here?"

Tifa had dealt with kids for a long time, she knew how to calm them down. And this boy was smart, still had an air of childishness about him, but he had survived this far and obviously knew what he was doing, the best way to deal with children like that is to give him a bit of respect. That reminded her of Marlene and Denzel even more, and she felt that ache in her chest.

The boy hesitated a bit, then looked between all four adults before deciding he rather talk to Tifa, "This is my spot. To get stuff I mean."

"What about the manikins, isn't it dangerous?"

The boy looked proud of himself, "There were tons, but I know this place inside and out. I lured them all away and escaped before they could even catch me."

That explained why there were no manikins around.

"You were here all by yourself?"

The hesitation told her he wasn't and Tifa gave her most sincere smile, tilted her head to side, and gave her best nonjudgmental look, "We're not here to hurt anyone."

"… There's another person. A girl, but she's … not doing so well," he said finally trusting Tifa. And then finally, a wall broke and he was less of a survivor and more of a kid again, "You're going to help her?"

"We'll try," Tidus said and Tifa looked turned her head to him. She thought he would be the first one waiting to run out of this place and find Yuna, but she was wrong about him again.

Those two, Tidus and Yuna, opposite sides of the same coin.

"Follow me," and he scampered off. He was fast, Tifa realized. Everyone she was traveling right now was fast in their own respect, Lightning like… well like Lightning, Tidus like water, Kain like wind, and Tifa could probably outrun them all in a straight race (_wow that kind of sounded corny_). But the boy managed to duck and turn and outstrip them all. Whenever they fell back he would stop and wait with a huff of impatience. He took them to the back of the store in the stock room, he ran up a box machine, up a pile of boxes until he got to a ladder leaning hazardously on the wall, all the way to the rafters.

"No wonder no one could find him," Tidus said mumbling, "It's a damn maze."

They managed to climb to the building's roof, the floor perilously further below than was comfortable, but Tifa was never particularly scared of heights. She had remembered that from the outside and the stores had been connected, sharing the same roof like an umbrella.

Smart, Tifa thought. He had access to every store in the shopping center, but could stay in a store that was impossible to get into.

He finally stopped right above what looked like to be a the nail salon, and then, grabbed the edge of another ladder he probably took from the grocery store and went down.

"Here's hoping were done with this," Tifa said, following the boy.

"Who's that?" said a small, delicate feminine voice when her feet touched ground. It sounded like bell chimes in the wind, soft and pretty, and easily breakable.

The girl matched her voice.

She was curled up in a corner with a ragged blanket that was too large for her body. That wasn't saying much about the blanket though, she was petite, and at closer inspection Tifa concluded much, much too skinny; she hadn't been eating properly. Lovely waves of green hair was tied to the back of her head with wisps of it framing a heart shaped face, and she had the most innocent eyes Tifa had ever seen.

She wasn't too young, maybe in later years of highschool, certainly much older than the boy. Tifa was torn between annoyance that she would let the child care for her, and pity because she really did look unwell.

The saloon's door was completely blocked off by a cave in up at the front, but the back where the girl stayed was untouched, the saloon chairs were kept intact (maybe for sleeping?), and boxes of old food and wrappers were piled on the other side. They had been here for awhile.

"We were just passing through here when we found your friend," she said offering a hand, "The name's Tifa, and yours?"

The girl looked at Tifa's hand, then at Tifa and said, "My name is… ah. My name," she looked at the young boy for confirmation.

"Her name's Terra."

"You need help remembering your name?" Tidus said raising a brow.

Terra looked away, embarrassed.

"She can't remember anything," the boy said, "She's got complete amnesia."

-x-

A/N: Terra with amnesia isn't exactly the most unique of situations but eh, I'll take it. (And in case anyone was wondering, that was Onion Knight).

Thanks for the reviews, they really do make my day, Kuchiki Jeanne (a few weeks late) and mjlaub

Romae pretio: thank you for the review, and sorry I didn't get to expand on the tunnel gang. I had wanted too but the story drove forward and I didn't really get the time with the chapter was already getting pretty long. Also, I didn't even think about the Galbadia tunnels… but I'll take credit for that anyway because it makes me feel smart. I chose a tunnel because I wanted them to hold something that was significant, some place that people would need to go through, and I thought a bridge would either have been taken down by the explosion or just impossible to fortify.

The reason I wrote in the tunnel gang is when I was thinking of the story, I realized that the main characters would be running around a lot, and I wanted to make a contrast to that, to have a group of survivors hunker down. Originally the plan was them to be a lot more morally ambiguous, not evil people but not giving. I chose 589 because they are really fun as a group- but unfortunately their characterizations just didn't lend itself to the morally ambiguous.

Speaking of characterization, writing Onion Knight for the past couple of chapters (finally finished with a rough draft of chapter 7), he is easily the most OOC. The appeal of writing a kid in a zombie apocalypse overrode my better judgment, I'd rather give a kid- kid issues and characterizations, rather than just being minisized mature adult in a sea of just taller, mature adults (and Tidus). I tried to keep him intelligence and protectiveness intact, but with a flair of immaturity and for some reason that ended up being kind of sarcastic and indignation when challenged.


	5. Chapter 4: One Man's Trash

_Days After_

Chapter 4: "One Man's Trash"

**6:45:05 AM**

A soft, cool hand flutters over his forehead. It's almost enough to chase away the nightmares and the sick that grows and tightens in his stomach.

"You have a fever," Terra says, "go back to sleep, Onion."

His eyes blinks open.

"Not that bad," he croaks but he falls back to sleep anyways.

**7:00:00 AM**

An alarm sounds and it's shrill and irritating and it refuses to stop. He wants to knock it off his table or maybe throw it out the window. But he just can't get up, it feels like an invisible hand is pushing down on his body, squeezing his head, stabbing his stomach, and filling his eyes with sand all at the same time.

Someone does though, one of the other kids from the two pairs of bunkbeds in the room manages to get up and hit the snooze button.

"Hey Onion get up! It's time for school."  
He hates when the other kids from the group home call him Onion. There's always a weight of an insult in it. Only Terra says his name kindly.

**7:04: 30 AM**

"Teeerrraaaa," the other kids childishly, stupidly cry out, "He's not waking up, he's going to be late."

He hears light (perfect) footsteps, a voice, "He's sick. He's taking the day off of school."

"Me too," says another boy, from the other top bunk, "I'm sick too. I cough and everything."

"Is that so, well I guess I can get you some medicine, and then take you to the doctor for some shots."

"I think I feel better."

"It's a miracle," she says, amused.

"_So dumb_," Onion doesn't know how she puts up with how dumb they all can be.

**7:36:42 AM**

"You're going to be late," she's shooing them now, all six boys and four girls out of the door of the group home.

"It's not fair, stupid Onion gets to stay home," says one of the girls stamping her feet in a tantrum.

"_Go,_" Terra says uncharacteristically stern and they all scatter.

**7:40:22 AM**

The door slams and she sighs, running her hand through her (green, but not sharp green like the leaves in the forest or stones like emeralds. Green like the clear sea, bright and soft) hair.

"They don't mean it, Onion," she says, she knows he's not asleep. The bed shifts beside him and he's glad to have her near.

His real name is not Onion of course. It's some stupid name everyone in the group home decided to call him for some reason he can't remember. Probably because nobody likes onions; or because the one time all played a prank on him and switched his sandwich to one entirely made out of onions. He's smarter than everyone here, adults calls him a genius and they give him a scholarship, so now the rest of the kids call him Onion. Stinky, smelly, nobody wants him.

He lets Terra call him Onion though, because she says it with warmth in her voice, like it's a secret between the two.

Everyone else can go to hell.

He tells Terra that too. Right there.

"They're just kids," Terra soothes even they're mostly the same age as him, "They're not as mature as you."

**7:45:57 AM**

He peeks out of from one eye, tiredly and sees her smile down on him. Then he looks at the clock.

"You're not going to school either?" he asks and Terra shrugs.

"I have some stuff to do."

"_Liar, liar, liar_," a voice says in his head. Terra wants to go to school he knows, but she's going to stay there to take care of him because none of the adults will.

He feels guilty.

He also feels happy. He closes his eyes again.

**10:15:19 AM**

Terra's on the phone with someone and he can hear her voice drifting through the door.

"I just want you safe," he hears. That sounds like something Terra would say.

Everyone likes her, except for maybe the grownups in the house. The grownups hate him too, just because he's too smart for his own good. He knows that the adults don't take care of the kids like they are obligated too. He knows that they have way too many nice things than they should- that they're probably stealing money from the group home. That they just pile more and more kids and get nicer and nicer cars.

They don't like Terra because she just won't go away. Onion knows that she could have taken off anytime, left this hell hole like a whole bunch of other older runaways. But she never does because she won't leave any of the kids.

She feeds them, she makes sure they always have good clothes, she checks their homework, and tucks them into bed. Then she goes and does her own highschool homework, and if she doesn't have time between taking care of all the people and school- she just doesn't go to school.

Onion knows that she's gone through a lot. They all have. They said that her real mother and father died. And then she was adopted by a person, more monster than man. They whisper that when Terra came to the home she was less person than ghost.

When the adults want to be mean, they call her things a lot worse than "onion". Lots of times they just call her slut over and over again and he doesn't even understand what that word means. But he knows it's not true.

She takes it though. She never wavers one bit, she just keeps staying with the kids and ignoring all the insults. She's their mother, sister, and best friend all at the same time.

**1:20:54 AM**

Something is shaking him awake but not unkindly.

"I know it's kind of late for lunch but you need to eat something," Terra says.

Onion groans but he struggles up and rests his back on the wall behind him.

"Soup," she says, "Not exactly creative, but you can never go wrong with chicken noodle."

If there are angels, they would all have green hair and be named Terra.

Onion would probably blush if his face wasn't already red with fever. His brain is mush right now.

**1:23:03 AM**

He tries his best to keep the food down even after just one bite, and Terra rubs soft circles on his back.

He knows she's not perfect. She's passive, and a lot of times she acts like she's scared of the world. But she's never let it stop her. She can be cowed by the adults, but she will always stand up for them.

**1:34:47 AM**

He almost doesn't make it to the toilet, and his soup is coming up.

"I'm sorry," Onion heaves and Terra hugs him because she's never angry at him.

"It's okay. Come on, back to bed."

**1:43:11 AM**

"Ugh I can't believe I puked," he says burying his head in his arms in embarrassment, and Terra laughs.

"It happens."

He doesn't want to puke in front of Terra. Not when she sacrifices school, and takes her time to make soup. He wants to do right by her and being so sick makes him feel like a kid.

He is a kid. But that doesn't make it better.

**1:44:54 AM**

His entire body shakes.

No that's not right.

His entire room shakes. The soup spills on the ground and Terra's eyes go alert.

"Terra?" his voice is high and squeaky (_I'm so dumb_), and Terra looks at him again.

"What was that?" he asks after a half a second of being absolutely still. Terra begins to say something when everything quakes around them again, but this time stronger.

It's unnatural, like a monster shuddering in the room. Not wasting a second, Terra picks up Onion from the bed, princess style.

"We need to get somewhere safe," she says and whirls him out of the room as the walls begin to rattle furiously at them.

**1:46:32 AM**

"Terra watch out!" and Terra is forced to drop him as she dodges a piece of the ceiling.

"Onion are you alright?" she says panic rising in her voice.

"Yeah," he says and tries to stand up with his head but his world spinning. It does not work and he falls again.

"Onion!" she screams, "Luneth!" and she pushes him out of the way of falling debris. Instead to solid slab of roof hits the back of her skull so cruelly that her head snaps forward in a way even someone young as Onion knows is very bad.

He's blinking through his tears, breathing through running snot, and finding her name through his screams as he makes his way to her body. She's not moving and he finds what little strength to drag her under a table.

**2:01:23 AM**

The trembles stop. Half the house bows in defeat but most of it is still in tact- or at least not collapsing over them.

"Terra, Terra, come on. It stopped so you can wake up," the house might have stopped shaking, but not his voice or hands.

The back of her head is sticky with red and she isn't waking up.

**4:56:49 AM**

She's still sleeping so he puts a scratchy blue blanket over the top of her. Any minute now someone will come.

**5:43:34 AM**

She hasn't moved, not one bit.

"What if she's dead," and Onion actually cries at the idea.

He moves his ear to her chest and feels it move up… down… rhythmically. She's breathing so she's not dead.

He cries again.

**7:03:27 AM**

Why is nobody coming? He's so tired, and feels hot, and he's been waiting patiently like school always tells him to do in these situations. Isn't someone supposed to rescue them? Where are the police? Or the firemen? Or the army.

**11:15:02 AM**

No one's coming.

Terra's not waking up.

And Onion isn't crying anymore. He wipes the snot and tear stains and dust from his eyes.

He's going to stop being a baby and protect Terra because no one else will. He remembers all the times she's stood up for him and defended him from the other kids and adults. Keep her safe because she'd do the same for him.

* * *

"She didn't wake up until two days later. And even then she's doesn't remember anything," Onion said, and Tifa studied Terra thoughtfully. Onion had taken really good care of her, she's demure, eerily pale, and she can see her ribs poking out, but she's alive.

Tifa didn't want to even think about what it would be like waking up not remembering anything. And then the first thing you knew was everything has gone to hell and walking murderous nightmares wandered the streets.

"What do we do?" leave it to Kain to ask the question no one wants to answer.

"We don't have the time to drag them with us," Lightning said, "the last thing we need is a kid and an amnesiac following us. We can barely keep ourselves alive."

"You're leaving us?" Onion practically spat, "I did what you told me to and answered everything you asked and now you're just going to go on your way?"

"We're about to go somewhere extremely dangerous," Tifa tried to pacify him, "Coming with us will just put you two in danger."

"Are you kidding? Look around, we're already in danger," he said turning red.

"Listen kid, you're safer here for the time being. You didn't even want to come with us until a few minutes ago. After we get done what we're doing, we'll come get you-"

"I don't believe you," he interrupting Tidus with a fury, "More likely something will come up and you won't be able to come get us. We're okay for now but not for forever, and if something big happens I don't think…" Onion looked reluctant to say it, "I don't think I can protect her. You need to take us with you."

"We can't-," Lightning started.

"Let's take them with us," Tidus said and everyone groaned.

"You do want to find Yuna right?" Lightning said, "Because I'm beginning to doubt it since you're hell-bent on sabotaging all our efforts."

"We're not going to get in the way. And who's Yuna?" Onion said.

"Listen, if we caught the baby ("I'm not a baby"), then the manikins will eventually too. There's safety in numbers."

"Onion, go to Terra," Tifa said firmly, ushering the boy away. He looked like he wanted to protest but Tifa didn't let him, "we need to talk this out between us. If you keep interrupting it'll never get done."

He grumbled and made his way to the girl.

"The kid is sick," Lightning said as soon as he was far enough away.

"What, he seemed fine to me," Tidus looked at Onion as he bent down to whisper something in Terra's ear. The green haired girl nodded in response.

"He's hiding it okay, but I felt that he was burning up when I caught him," she said; Tidus grumbled something akin to "by the neck, baby strangler" to which Lightning elbowed him quiet.

"More reason to bring him with us," Tidus said rubbing his sore spot, "There's no medicine around here, and he probably wouldn't even know what to do with it. But Yuna's a doctor she can fix them."

"So you want to drag the kid with the fever and the girl with a head trauma around."

"They'd be running around even if we aren't here. At least we can keep an eye on them."

"Excuse me," said a girlish voice, and they swerved their heads towards Terra, "I know this is inconvenient but please take us with you."

She even stands prettily, Tifa noted. Her hands were clasped gently before her and her feet close together, but Tifa could see in her stance that she was nervously digging the balls of her feet to the ground.

"It's safer here."

"I don't have my memories but I have my common sense and even I know that nowhere is safe. If this is the best chance to get Onion some help I'm going to take it," she had more fire than Tifa gave her credit for. She was obviously still nervous, there was a slight stutter in her voice and her eyes darted around, but she was still trying. That had to count for something.

"She has my vote," Tifa said, shrugging.

"I'll help," Terra said as she stood her ground, "I don't know what I could do, but I'll do it."

Lightning frowned, "We can't just waltz over Kuja's place with even _more_ people if he's unstable as-"

"Kuja?" Onion perked up, "You need him? I can take you there! I know my way around this entire area so that we can avoid most of the manikins."

Lightning looked at Kain, whose face plainly stated "I don't care, you chose."

"Shit," frustrated and defeated, "Pack your things as quickly as you can; we leave in twenty."

-x-

They were finishing grabbing items at Chocobolina's store and Onion was darting between all the aisles, knowing exactly what he wanted and where it was. Tidus had taken it on himself to try and get Terra ready, he adjusted her bag closely so that it didn't bounce and stress her shoulders, and to her credit she stood there patiently as Tidus coached her on tips of survival.

He had tried to give the same advice to Onion, but the kid wouldn't have it.

"I've been camping once, I know what to do," he said seriously.

"Well I'm convinced," Lightning drawled, sharpening her dagger with a kitchen knife using all the care a mother would have for a child.

"Sarcasm doesn't always help," Tifa admonished with a grin. Lighting replied with a glare.

"What's that, Kain?" she deflected, avoiding the direct path of Lightning's glower. Kain had been crouched there for awhile now, sitting next to the cut-out of a way too cheery looking woman dressed in some ridiculous costume, with the word bubble, "CHOCOBOLINA RECOMMENDS GREAT SAVINGS ON HOME IMPROVEMENT". Tifa saw that he had been duct taping a large serrated knife to the end of the metal rod he had been using as a weapon.

"I figured it would help," he said as he twisted the dark strap around the handle.

"Like a spear, clever," then Tifa teasingly added, "Or something like the Penguin would use, right?"

Kain stopped what he was doing and just stared at her. Tifa coughed.

"We're leaving," Lightning said, and the group gathered around her.

"Six people will attract attention so we need to do this smart and fast. Onion knows the way so he'll lead us, then me, then Tidus, Terra, and Tifa and Kain will be in charge of our backs."

"Why are you first?" Tidus grumbled, which Lightning ignored as the party took off.

If he did have a fever, Tifa was almost scared to see how fast he was when he was perfectly healthy. He knew what he was doing, dodged under cars and posts, peeking out, then zigzagging around without a moment's hesitation.

He wasn't lying about knowing another way that avoided manikins. He kept away from the main road almost entirely, instead he dodged through buildings and small cracks through walls. Tifa had tried to memorize their path, but gave up after awhile. She was completely lost and the only person who had any clue where they were headed was Onion.

"You sure you know where you're going?" Tidus strained as he climbed a chain link fence in the alleyway.

"Of course, I'm actually saving you time. This is faster and safer than any other way," he turned his head to show an annoyed frown.

"Yeah right."

"Trust him," Terra echoed behind Tidus, "he knows this place better than anyone. He's always come back safely."

"Of course it's safe for him, he's like, two feet tall so no one could see him anyway," luckily Onion didn't hear him.

"Why would you guys want to see Kuja anyway?" Onion asked, "It doesn't seem like the safest thing to do."

"We heard he owns the trams," Lightning said.

"Yeah, but you don't exactly want a crazy man driving your bus," Onion replied, "I had a crazy busdriver once. It's not fun."

Kain and Tifa exchange a look before she asked, "How crazy is he?"

"I never actually met him but… he has. Well, you'll see, it's easier than trying to explain it," Onion says cryptically, "We're almost there anyway."

Terra took that moment to vomit, she fell to her knees and dry heaved.

"Oh what the hell?" Tidus went to pat Terra on the back as gently as he could and Onion stopped all together.

"I'm okay," she said trying to reassure everyone, "just got a little dizzy."

No one believed her obvious lie. Terra kept on having strange bouts of dizziness and nausea; Tifa wasn't a doctor by any means but she was sure that hit on her head was still affecting Terra. She tried her absolute best to pretend there was nothing wrong, but you couldn't play off random vomiting.

"Onion, go on. We're almost there, right?" Terra urged as she dusted her knees. Onion gave her a doubtful look but reluctantly went back to guiding them. He moved a bit slower though.

Tidus offered an arm but Terra smiled in a polite refusal and struggled onward. She's too much of a good girl, Tifa thought, not selfish enough for the end of the world. Selflessness was pretty much foolish at this point but Tifa thought they were all damned fools anyway.

Onion had sent them across another lonely alleyway, and Tifa did her best to not step in the unidentified garbage and junk scattered from upturned trash cans.

"His place is just after this alleyway. You sure about this?" he asked.

"Let's just go," Tidus said, already bored with the constant back and forth.

Onion shrugged in a 'don't-say-I-didn't-warn-you' kind of way and the six moved out of the alleyway and onto the wide road.

Tifa spotted it immediately, it would have been impossible not to. It stood like a fortress, any of the surrounding vehicles had been moved in a protective circle around the station, piled high like they were matchbox cars. Tifa remembered seeing broken fences on her way there and now she knew that someone had taken them to surround the wall of cars. This had taken a considerable amount of effort, it put even Zidane-Squall-Bartz's tunnel system to shame.

"How many people run this place?" Tifa asked as they passed the car-barrier through its only opening, someone with an odd sense of humor had left a crude welcome mat.

"Just one," Onion said and that was pretty damn impossible. Tifa wasn't sure how she was to believe just one person could fortify all of this to such an extreme extent, not to mention someone would have to do the repairing, powering, and clearing the way for the trams.

She heard a shriek of rage and her mind registered manikin, Tifa instinctually grabbed Terra and pulled away from the source.

"It's fine," Onion said watching the rest react reflexively, "I should have warned you I guess."

There were dozens of manikins scattered around the inner part of the station, screeching at them and flailing. But they weren't coming any closer.

"Are they _chained_ here?" Lightning eyes widened.

"I told you he was crazy. You had to see it to really understand."

Sure enough, rows and rows of manikins struggled against their clinking chains- which were attached to ground, or trees, or lightstands, furious and desperate. It was like some deranged garden. She felt Terra's own grip on her tighten, scared, and unsure.

"_Me too_._"_

Onion called him crazy but crazy was an understatement; it took a whole level of insane to shackle all the manikins there like they were ornaments. It wasn't as if Tifa felt sorry for manikins, she'd long since recognized that there wasn't anything human about them. Just mindless, raging dolls ready to maim and destroy. But she wouldn't _chain_ them to her front yard. She wondered if it was a warning, or some sick attempt of entertainment. She didn't even know which would scare her more.

"Right," Lightning said while her hand brushed the side where her dagger rested, "So we just walk in?"

"I've seen people go in without any real trouble," Onion said, "I think he has this demented open door policy."

"Of course, after the warm reception why wouldn't you want to enter?" Tidus joked, but not sounding very humorous.

"Anyone who goes here of their own free would be desperate," Kain's tone was even, as if he were tring to calculate what kind of man Kuja could be, "and he knows it. It automatically puts us at a disadvantage."

Lightning grimaced at the idea of walking into a situation where they were already behind, but pushed the doors anyway (he was right, they were desperate). Sure enough, they were unlocked.

Tifa wasn't sure what she expected, but this wasn't it.

Every place Tifa had been was rundown; even in just two weeks the buildings were a symphony of broken pipes, broken floors, cracked walls. A reflection on just how far this world devolved into at breakneck speed. But this place had been _cleaned_. It shined under dim romantic light, the checkered floor squeaked with polish under Tifa's dusty, worn shoes and a red carpet down the center, as if expecting a celebrity or royalty. It didn't look like a tram station, it didn't look like anything she knew. And what was worse that despite all this gloss, the place smelled more like blood than the garden of manikins.

"Where's this Kuja supposed to be?" Tidus asked in his own bewilderment but Onion shook his head.

"The farthest I got was peeking through the gate."

Tifa stared at the paintings that covered the station's walls, they were fancy down to their frame.

"_Might have_ _been_ _stolen them from an art museum_," and she thought about how she had been scavenging for food for the past weeks, risking her life to loot abandoned apartments and scraping at the bottom of cans so that she could taste _something_ before she fell asleep with an empty stomach. While men were going hungry, this Kuja was taking art.

She traced a sculpture of a broken Greek woman with the tip of her finger, what was the point?

"Lovely isn't it?" said a voice and the group's head swerved to the noise.

Had it not been for his voice, Tifa would have sworn he was a woman, he had a prettier face than Yuna, just as delicate but sharper. Very sharp. His eyes especially pierced like a knife, and had a smile that was even more pointed.

"What the hell is that freak wearing?" Tidus mumbled and Tifa had to agree, it was some renaissance costume, complete with ridiculous frills in deep shades of crushed velvet red.

"It's one of my favorites," he said motioning to the statue Tifa had been staring at, "Though you should be careful. It's worth more than all of you combined."

Tifa tried to guess the value of art was right now, probably a little less than the shit on her shoe. But she backed away from it anyway.

"Zidane sent us," Kain said, and he had an incredible poker voice, Tifa wasn't sure how anyone could even pretend not to be slightly affected by the amount of insane Kuja radiated.

"Really?" he replied in mock interest as he walked to them, hips swaying, "How is he? We were in the same theater troop you know. It was small through; people in this city just didn't understand the art of plays honestly. We never really did well."

He began to wipe the spot on the sculpture where Tifa touched, like her fingerprints would have dirtied it somehow, "Nowadays, I'm doing much better."

There was a clanging of metal against metal, squealing irritably as something pulled against a chain. Christ, he had manikins in here too.

The body struggled on the floor, stirring its head at the conversation, and then it lifted its head and said "pleeasseee."

Manikins always said weird things, but this one said it with such earnest, and its eyes were clear…

"It's a person. Not a manikin, _a person_," Terra whispered at the realization and Lightning swore. Terra rushed forward to help the poor bastard.

"I wouldn't if I were you," Kuja said in a sing-songy voice, "The minute you release him, he'd just as likely to rape you, steal your possessions, and murder you horribly. Not necessarily in that order."

Terra hesitated before she reached the writhing man, his arm still tried to stretch to her, "He was a bad man?"

"He raped more people than manikins have killed," Kuja was still marveling at his statue, not even bothering to look at them.

"That's why you did this to him?"

And Kuja gave this light laugh, "Oh no. I've never considered myself a vigilante of justice."

He waved around to the station, "You know it was his group that started this project. He managed to assemble the most people I've seen since this city fell. They were wonderful, they rewired this particular power grid, and then he convinced his people to clear the debris from the tracks. He hoped that by having a monopoly of transportation he would be able to become emperor of this land of trash.

"Emporer Gehstal. It took a lot of skilled labor, but it was easier than controlling any of the grocery stores, too much competition, too many people grabbing at it. But in this new world, there are always desperate people wanting to go somewhere fast and safe. He was creative, if nothing else."

So that's how Kuja managed to get everything working, he just took what others built.

"He just let you steal it from him?" Kain asked.

"He didn't even get to reap the awards, my poor tragic Emperor Ghestal. As soon as it was done, there was infighting. Gehstal and, what was her name? Ah yes, Brahne, a stupid fat cow had I ever seen one, she didn't even have the decency to survive to make a chained pair with Gehstal; either way they started a war with each other. And then everyone began to fight."

Kuja's eyes glinted in fond memory; "You should have seen them, one hundred men and women, accomplished more than any other group of survivors left in this city, all tearing at each other in greed screaming; '_Mine! Mine!'_ It was theater at its greatest."

"Y-y-you did thh-thiii" said Gehstal's starving form, pointing a finger at Kuja.

"I did have a hand in fanning the flame," Kuja agreed cheerfully, "a whisper here, a whisper there. But one hundred rivals vanished from my sight and I didn't have to lift a finger."

"We're not interested in any of this crap. We need to get near Saint Yevon Hospital, can you do that?" Lightning finally asked, getting straight to business.

"The trams were a small pet project of Shinra, they don't expand throughout the entire city," Kuja said as he tapped a delicate finger to his face in contemplation, "but I could take you part of the way there. Depending on what you have."

Bartering wasn't anything new, they could deal with that, so Tifa slid her bookbag off and opened it, "We have plenty of food and water if you need any, a few weapons and-"

"All of it," Kuja interrupted and Tifa blinked, "And not just yours. I want everything everyone is holding. Guns, food, water, even your clothes."

Tidus gaped and Kuja smiled, "That will do nicely. I'll take you about halfway."

"There's got to be something that will take us," Tifa began fumbling.

"Even if there was something you had that I so dreadfully wanted, _I_ am the only way for you to travel effectively to your destination, right? You came to me. Which means I make the rules."

"But sir," Terra said stepping up to Kuja with a plead, "Listen to their story. If you don't help us, good people will die."

"People have been dying since long before any of this happened," he said dismissively, then he put a tender hand on Terra's chin- like a lover would have, "Good people, I have found, die the easiest."

Terra shrugged her face away and Onion looked as if he wanted to fight right there, but Kuja went on unaffected, eyeing the rest of the group.

"This is nice," he said looking at Lightning's dagger, "A lot nicer than I would have guessed any of you would be carrying. The craftsmanship is like a work of art."

Lightning became steel and fire and pulled the dagger from Kuja's view, as if to protect it. This just amused him more.

"If you haven't guessed already, I'm fond of things like art. That would definitely help pay your way," he said poking at Lightning's rage more, "How about a better trade?"

"How about I take the pointy end and shove it up your-"

"We decline," Tidus said and Kuja tilted his head.

"Is that so? I thought you were desperate. Afterall, good people might die."

Before Kuja could take another step towards Lightning, Kain stepped between them standing like a wall, dwarfing the theatrical man and staring down at him past his nose. Kuja clapped his hands together.

"Ah, the good dark knight, protecting his flock," he said as he smiled at Kain's tall figure and then after a moment retreated, "If you truly are beyond negotiations you may leave the way you came. You all have my best wishes."

"Screw your best wishes," Tidus called to him as he stormed away, practically bashing his way through the doors. He was so furious he barely took notice of the wailing manikins in the yard that were once again straining to get at him.

"You sure about this?" Lightning finally asked him after a long period of walking in silence, "It could have saved us a lot of time."

"He was a crazy as shit psycho that chains manikins all over his place," Tidus said, but his face was turned so no one could see his expression.

"The dagger would have at least fetched us a part of the way," she said, regret dripping from every word.

"Fuck it. We don't need anything from him, and we don't need to sacrifice something that you obviously care about. You hold on to that thing like a rescue float to a drowning man."

"Right…" Lightning didn't say thanks, but he could feel it from her.

Tidus finally turned his head and gave a very weak, stressed smile that did nothing to hide his worry.

"Hey, karma remember? Do the right thing and it'll do right by you later. I always believed that."

As if on cue, the sky thundered above them, churning within itself and blocking out the rest of the sky.

"Well shit, perfect timing. Way to ruin my inspirational speech," Tidus groaned, and fat drops of rain began to fall from the bleak sky.

Lightning dug out the old trashbags she took from the store.

"No wasting time," she said, she sounded determined in a way Tifa never seen her before, "We're going to save Yuna, right? We wasted enough time with Kuja's fuckery. No more side trips."

This was Lightning's way of repaying Tidus' kindness, Tifa realized as she pulled her trashbag over her clothes and pack; she was no good at words but she could give him action and devotion.

"Do you think we'll make it?" Terra said, clearly shaken from everything that happened. Tifa winced a little, the last thing that Terra needed from her first real encounter out in the city was someone like Kuja. Even Tifa was bothered, it was honestly inspiring how Terra's resolve still wasn't broken.

"_Thatagirl._"

"Do you know a faster way to Saint Yevon Hospital, Onion?" Kain asked and the boy shook his head.

"I could take us to the main road faster, but I only know the area around where Terra and I stayed," Onion sounded bothered he couldn't help more, and looked more his age with child-like remorse and the trashbags hanging more like an oversized shirt.

"That's fine," Lightning said patting him on the head, "we'll make it just fine."

Everyone else nodded at the sentiment, and began on their way. The rain began to pour.

* * *

A/N: I… really have no excuse why this took so long. I had it all written down but life, laziness, and a desperate hatred of editing got in the way. Unfortunately the problem is that some of the set ups from earlier chapters are lost (like the penguin joke).

Thinking back on it, this Kuja side plot was kind of filler but I just really wanted to write Kuja. He's fun and one of my favorite villains, and it was awesome to write him.

Terra is probably the hardest to write just because I'm always overthinking her character. She's also one of my favorites so I want to give her better treatment than she got in Dissidia, but I can see the temptation to write someone as vulnerable/a victim in a cast of heroes. I think the hardest part is that she walks a delicate line of being delicate, insecure, and venerable but also determined and heroic. Even in her story she bounced from being someone who needed to be protected like a child to being a protector of children. I go back and forth on her character in this story a lot but I think her character was inherently confused in VI so it works.

BlueSpiritFire1: Thanks for your review, and yes the Midgar story will get told later. It's not really a story breaking spoiler so it's not a huge deal, but it is something I'm interested in writing though I haven't gotten to yet. I haven't reached that point as of now (pretty close), but I've pretty much gotten the entire timeline punched out, down to which character was doing what on which day since the time of the explosion.

There's a lot of one degree of separation in the story where characters are loosely connected but in ways that don't really matter. One example I don't use in the story is that Bartz mentions he was a camp counselor (like boy scouts) that Onion use to be in- they just don't recognize each other because they weren't in each others squad, or team or however it's done there. So like the Midgar story, it's interesting just not entirely pertinent.


End file.
